Prodigy Galaxy: A Barred Spiral at the Dawn of Time
The early Universe is often imagined as a nursery: most galaxies there are amorphous blobs, rowdy and irregular, choking on gas and bursts of star formation.
Beads on Strings: How the Cosmic Web Molds Galaxies
A filament of the cosmic web stretches through the young universe, and strung along it like beads on a necklace are galaxies. In the core of the SSA22 protocluster, which in a few billion years will become the center of a massive cluster, these beads are still hot and dusty: stars are being born inside them, and cold gas serves as fuel.