Hubble Captures Massive Dead Disk Galaxy that Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution

A CLOSER LOOK

By combining the power of a "natural lens" in space with the capability of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang. Finding such a galaxy early in the history of the universe challenges the current understanding of how massive galaxies form and evolve, say researchers. Read more: go.nasa.gov/2sWwKkc caption: Acting as a “natural telescope” in space, the gravity of the extremely massive foreground galaxy cluster MACS J2129-0741 magnifies, brightens, and distorts the far-distant background galaxy MACS2129-1, shown in the top box. The middle box is a blown-up view of the gravitationally lensed galaxy. In th

Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.