Overview
- Astronomers report in Nature Astronomy on May 4 that galaxy XMM-VID1-2075 shows no sign of spinning despite forming less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
- JWST mapped the internal motions of stars in this distant system, building on earlier MAGAZ3NE and Keck results that had already shown it is very massive and no longer forming stars.
- Of three same‑era galaxies examined, one rotates, one looks disordered, and XMM-VID1-2075 shows only random stellar motion with no coherent spin.
- The team points to a likely single merger with a galaxy rotating the other way, citing an off‑center excess of light near XMM-VID1-2075 that suggests a recent interaction.
- Researchers will now search for more such slow rotators to check simulation predictions that these non‑spinning massive galaxies should be rare in the early universe.