14 DAY TRIAL // Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers was recently able to discover BX442, a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way. What sets this structure apart from any other is the fact that it's more than 10.7 billion years old.
According to experts, this may very well be the oldest-known spiral galaxy out there. Classified as a grand-design spiral, the object should not exist, current cosmological models suggest. In short, it appeared at a time when the formation of such structures was thought to be impossible.
“The fact that this galaxy exists is astounding,” University of Toronto expert David Law says, quoted by Space. Calculations indicate that BX442 started to form around 3 billion years after the Big Bang rapidly inflated everything into being.
Another mysterious aspect of the new discovery – which scientists plan to uncover in future studies – is how the grand-design spiral galaxy maintained its pristine look, when other objects of its age are already disorganized and falling apart.