Oldest Spiral Galaxy Shocks Astronomers

An ancient galaxy has flabbergasted astronomers. The perfectly formed spiral galaxy was born eons ago, a mere 3 billion years after the Big Bang. But this galaxy type was considered impossible so early on, when the cosmos was too chaotic to mold a "grand-design" spiral. How did it appear? Researchers say the old star system, dubbed BX442, formed because it received a gravitational "kick" from a smaller "dwarf galaxy" in its orbit, reports BBC.

"You can get a little extra help if you've got a satellite galaxy orbiting around," explains one scientist. "It gives that extra little gravitational kick to help accentuate the strength of the arm and make it into one of those eye-popping examples like the Whirlpool galaxy that you see all the pictures of." (Read more Hubble Space Telescope stories.)