There were 10 times more galaxies like our own Milky Way in the beginning of the universe than we thought before.
This cosmic insight is presented in one of the first image studies captured by the NASA James Webb space telescope.
One of his authors, Professor Christopher Conselice of the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, said that Webb could "zoom in on the start of the universe.
Disc galaxies dominate the "galaxies population" today, said the researcher.
"Our own galaxy is a disc, Andromeda (our nearest neighbor, which is 2.5 million light years from the earth) is a disc.
"Three-quarters of neighboring galaxies are discs, but we thought they were formed late in the evolution of the universe," he told BBC News.
The NASA telescope takes super sharp by view of the first cosmos
The NASA space telescope offers spectacular images
A machine of $ 10 billion in search of the end of the darkness
It was before the James Webb space telescope gave astronomers a view so far in time.
The study, which was published on a preparation server, which means that it has not yet been examined by other scientists in the field, used the first published image of the telescope.
This image shows a group of leading galaxies called Smacs 0723. The severity of this large mass of objects has amplified the light of galaxies in the background, in a distant universe, making them visible for the first time. Some of these galaxies only existed 600 million years after the Big Bang.
Legend,
Webb takes incredible photos: "It could be the most important telescope of all time"
Webb, with its 6.5 m wide golden mirror and its super sensitive infrared instruments, is capable of solving their shapes and counting them.
"We knew that we would see the things that Hubble has not seen. But in this case, we see things differently," said Professor Conselice, who will present some of his discoveries on Saturday July 23 at the Bluedot Festival de Jodrell Bank in the cheshire.
The universe has about 13.8 billion years, so the images that the JWST capture are an overview of the processes that form stars and planets long before ours.
"These are the processes that we must understand if we want to understand our origins," said Professor Conselice.
"It may be the most important telescope of all time," he added. "At least since Galileo."
James Webb is a joint effort between American, European and Canadian space agencies, with NASA in mind.
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