James Webb Telescope Spots Ancient Disk Galaxy Challenging Formation Theories ACT Refines Universe Age with CMB Polarization Data

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has serendipitously discovered a disk galaxy dating back to two billion years after the Big Bang, approximately eleven billion years ago. This finding challenges existing theories on the early formation of disk galaxies. Named 'Big Wheel,' the galaxy has an optical radius of about 10 kiloparsecs, exceeding current cosmological simulations for galaxies of that epoch. Further examination revealed a disk rotating at approximately 300 kilometers per second, rivaling the size of today's largest spiral galaxies. The galaxy resides in a dense region of space, which may have promoted rapid disk development.In related news, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) has released new high-definition images of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), refining estimates for the age and expansion rate of the universe. The new data, featuring detailed polarization measurements, confirm the age of the universe as 13.8 billion years, with a minimal uncertainty of 0.1%. These measurements also support previous CMB-derived estimates of the Hubble constant, challenging alternative cosmological models aimed at resolving the Hubble tension. ACT's observations, conducted over five years, provide an independent check of the cosmological model, reinforcing the standard model of cosmology.