Answering the question of how galaxies form and grow over time has been a driving reason for the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Now, a team of researchers led by graduate student Yoshi Asada and Dr. Marcin Sawicki at Saint Mary's University used JWST to make an exciting discovery that will help explain the structure of the Universe. They discovered a highly magnified "baby galaxy" which is being assembled from "building blocks" created early in the history of the Universe. This galaxy is a perfect poster child of a galaxy's early stages of growth, and its study will help scientists better understand this crucial part of a galaxy's life. The galaxy is the result of an ongoing collision and merger of two smaller galaxies named ELG1 and ELG2. The remnants of these two smaller galaxies can still be seen in the JWST images.
