REBELS-25 is a massive, star-forming rotating disc galaxy[1][2] with a redshift of 7.31.[3]
It was discovered using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA),[4][5] notice of its discovery was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. REBELS-25 existed just 700 million years after the Big Bang.[6][7]
The discovery of such an ancient galaxy not only makes it the oldest known galaxy, but it is another piece of mounting evidence that suggests
REBELS-25 is very complex compared to what was expected for a galaxy of its age: researchers discovered that it rotates (with the help of blueshift and redshift), and also shows traces of spiral arms as "modern" galaxies, like the Milky Way, has.[9][10][11] Lucie Rowland, lead author of the REBELS-25 discovery paper, said about this ancient galaxy that "Seeing a galaxy with such similarities to our own Milky Way, that is strongly rotation-dominated, challenges our understanding of how quickly galaxies in the early Universe evolve into the orderly galaxies of today's cosmos".[12]
