--- title: "Scientists Puzzled Because James Webb Is Seeing Stuff That Shouldn’t Be There" description: "Scientists have long thought early galaxies to be chaotic, misshapen messes — but new James Webb imagery proves that theory to be completely false." date: "2022-08-30" modified: "2022-08-30" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-puzzled-james-webb-stuff" categories: - "James Webb Space Telescope" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "James webb" - "james webb space telescope" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Puzzled Because James Webb Is Seeing Stuff That Shouldn’t Be There ![Scientists have long thought early galaxies to be chaotic, misshapen messes — but new James Webb imagery proves that theory to be completely false.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Snap Shot Over the past several weeks, NASA's ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has allowed humankind some unprecedented glimpses into the farthest reaches of our universe. And unsurprisingly, some of these dazzling new observations have raised more questions than they've answered. For a long time, for instance, scientists believed the universe's earliest, oldest galaxies to be small, slightly chaotic, and misshapen systems. But [according to the *Washington Post*](), JWST-captured imagery has revealed those galaxies to be shockingly massive, not to mention [balanced and well-formed]() — a finding that challenges, and will likely rewrite, long-held understandings about the origins of our universe. "The models just don't predict this," Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told *WaPo*. "How do you do this in the universe at such an early time? How do you form so many stars so quickly?" ## Move Over, Hubble As *WaPo* explains, older images of the universe — as captured by the recently dethroned Hubble Space Telescope — seemingly confirmed the widespread belief that early galaxies were chaotic, haphazard places. The JWST, however, appears to show that those findings were an illusion based on that Hubble's limited capabilities. "We thought the early universe was this chaotic place where there's all these clumps of star formation, and things are all a-jumble," the Space Telescope Science Institute's Dan Coe told *WaPo*, adding later that, before the JWST was launched into orbit, Hubble's imagery was "missing all the colder stars and the older stars. We were really only seeing the hot young ones." ## Time Machine While these findings have taken the scientific community by surprise, they're not at all a cause for alarm. Major technological advancements, in astronomy and beyond, have a long history of leading to periods of large-scale scientific discovery. Right now, it really feels like we're in one of those watershed moments, and the discoveries made today may well lay the foundation for future breakthroughs, even if they're decades down the line. And really, discoveries like this mean that the JWST is doing exactly what scientists want it to do — it's revealing new, exciting stuff about our [mind-bogglingly expansive universe](), answering old questions and [asking new ones]() along the way. **READ MORE:** *[Webb telescope is already challenging what astronomers thought they knew]()* \[*The Washington Post*\] **More on the James Webb Space Telescope:** [*James Webb Catches a Glimpse of the Most Distant Star in the Universe*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()