James Webb Space Telescope spies earliest complex organic molecules in the universe

James Webb Space Telescope image of a complex organic molecules in a distant galaxy, shown as a blurry red ring around a light-blue splotch that is a foreground galaxy.

Astronomers have detected the oldest known examples of complex organic molecules in the universe, a new study reports.

These chemicals — much like ones found in smoke and soot on Earth — reside within an early galaxy that formed when the universe was about 10% of its current age, according to the study.