A Galaxy Eerily Like Our Own Has Been Found 12 Billion Light-Years Away. Without a Single Trump Hotel.

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists shared telescope images of a galaxy so many light-years away, and similar enough to our own, that its discovery challenges prevailing theories of galaxy formation. The bombshell finding “represents a breakthrough” that shows how “structures in nearby spiral galaxies and in our Milky Way were already in place 12 billion years ago,” said Francesca Rizzo of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. Nowhere in the study is there indication of any evidence, direct or indirect, of Trump hotels, steakhouses, golf courses, or resorts. But the galaxy, named SPT0418-47, does include a rotating disk structure similar to ours. Its mass is also similar to the Milky Way’s, and it’s the earliest ever found with a galactic bulge.

Catch the telescope images here, and enjoy a weekend free of the fear that galaxies can’t exist without a particular brand of hotels and golf clubs.

Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

INDEPENDENT. BECAUSE OF YOU.

Mother Jones has no billionaires calling the shots—just readers like you making fearless reporting possible

Donate