James Webb telescope sees 'birth' of 3 of the universe's earliest galaxies in world-1st observations

This illustration shows a galaxy forming only a few hundred million years after the big bang, when gas was a mix of transparent and opaque during the Era of Reionization.

For the first time ever, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have detected some of the earliest galaxies in the known universe in the midst of being born. 

In a new study, published Thursday (May 23) in the journal Science, the researchers report the detection of what appears to be three infant galaxies sprouting from a primordial cloud of hydrogen and helium gas just 400 to 600 million years after the Big Bang.