Unexpected find: Two teams of astronomers have independently detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy,  JADES-GS-z14-0 (shown). Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Carniani et al./S. Schouws et al/JWST: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA)

Two key questions in astronomy are when and how did galaxies form?

The obvious observational approach is to look as far back in time as we possibly can to see what galaxies looked like. At the same time, theoretical models of the early universe aim to predict what the observations should reveal.

Neither of these is an easy task.

Recently, two teams of astronomers have independently detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, throwing something of a spanner into the cosmological works.

JADES-GS-z14-0 lies at a redshift of around 14.18, meaning that its light has taken some 13.4 billion years to reach us; we see it when the universe was 300 million years old, just 2 per cent of its current age.

At that time we would expect to see galaxies that are not old enough to have produced significant quantities of heavy elements, oxygen among them. Yet JADES-GS-z14-0 has around 10 times the heavy element abundance we would expect.

This result indicates that galaxies formed more rapidly after the Big Bang than we thought, challenging the current picture of conditions in the early universe.

Enter the dragon: Astronomers have discovered an extremely distant spiral galaxy, Zhúlong, meaning Torch Dragon. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/NASA/CSA/ESA/M. Xiao (University of Geneva)/G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute)/D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

In a further upset to our picture of galaxy formation, astronomers have recently reported the discovery of an extremely distant spiral galaxy.

'Grand design' spiral structure is not expected to develop until galaxies reach a certain maturity, after many billions of years.

But this galaxy – named Zhúlong, meaning Torch Dragon – lies at a redshift of around 5.2, just a billion years after the Big Bang. It looks remarkably like our own Milky Way and is another challenge to current ideas about conditions in the early universe.

Neptune's not-so Northern Lights: Top is Hubble's enhanced-colour image of Neptune, while below is that image combined with JWST data, with cyan splotches representing auroral activity. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (Northumbria University), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC)

On the hunt: A Galaxy Zoo project allowed members of the public to examine thousands of galaxy images taken with the James Webb telescope.Credit: Galaxy Zoo, Zooniverse. Inset galaxy: NASA/STScI/CEERS/TACC/S. Finkelstein/M. Bagley/Z. Levay/A. Pagan

Classifying the morphology (shapes and sizes) of large numbers of galaxies is another important tool in the quest to discover when and how they formed.

The Galaxy Zoo JWST CEERS project invited public participation to classify high-redshift disc galaxies, to investigate when features such as spiral arms began to form.

Like all Galaxy Zoo projects, this was an exciting opportunity for members of the public to contribute directly to scientific research, in this case by examining thousands of galaxy images taken with the James Webb Space Telescope.

A paper published in May in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society presents a detailed analysis of the results.

The most distant disc galaxy the researchers found with notable features is at a redshift of 5.5 and the most distant featureless disc galaxy is at a redshift of 7.4. Their conclusion is that around a third of disc galaxies are featureless between redshifts of 3 and 7.4.

The study contradicts current cosmological simulations, which predict the formation of discs in galaxies at redshifts of just 1-4. Further observations can be expected to shed light on the nature of the featureless disc galaxies, furthering our understanding of galaxy formation.

Lurking in the dark: Artist’s impression of a hypervelocity star ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud (shown on the right). These stars are created when a binary star system ventures too close to a supermassive black hole. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss

We have become used to the idea that most, if not all, galaxies harbour a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at their core.

But most of the evidence for this comes from studies of large galaxies, and evidence of SMBHs in the much smaller dwarf galaxies has been harder to come by.

Astronomers have now detected the presence of a SMBH in one of the dwarf galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way galaxy – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). They used a rather novel method, one that involves observing 'hyper-velocity stars' in our own galaxy.

Hyper-velocity stars are created when a binary star system ventures too close to a supermassive black hole. One of the stars is captured by the black hole, but the other is flung away at very high velocity, sufficient to escape the host galaxy entirely.

The astronomers made very precise measurements of the trajectories of 21 of these stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way to determine where they originated. They found that around half of them were flung out from the region around the SMBH in the Milky Way.

However, the other half were found to have been ejected from the LMC,  providing evidence for a SMBH in the LMC.

Nearby nova: A digital illustration of the immense explosion of this double white dwarf binary star system, named WDJ181058.67+311940.94. In this picture, the binary is captured in the moment where the first white dwarf has just exploded, hurtling material towards its nearby companion which is on the cusp of explosion too. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

Astronomers have reported the discovery of an extremely rare binary star system that looks set to produce a Type 1a supernova event and that is just 150 light-years from Earth — our back yard in cosmic terms.

The system consists of two white dwarf stars orbiting closely around each other. A white dwarf is the last stage in the life of a 'typical' Sun-like star. As the stars orbit, the more massive one drags material off the less massive one, until it eventually becomes unstable and explodes as a supernova. This is the first time such a system has been observed.

When the supernova occurs, huge amounts of energy will be released, likely appearing nearly 10 times as bright as the full Moon. But there's no need to panic; the system is not expected to produce its supernova for another 23 billion years.

Great spot: FRB 20230808F was detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. Credit: South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright pulses of radio-frequency radiation, lasting just milliseconds. First discovered in 2007, their transient and unpredictable nature has made them very hard to study.

They are most likely extragalactic, but their precise origin and nature remain unknown. A key addition to the data on these mysterious objects would be to observe a burst at other wavelengths, for example in visible light.

The FRB 20230808F was detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerLICHT is an optical telescope that co-observes with MeerKAT, in the hope of making simultaneous observations of an FRB.

At the time MeerKAT saw the burst, MeerLICHT was changing filters (astronomy suffers from bad luck as well!), but it started observing again just 3.4 seconds after the burst was seen by MeerKAT.

That is the shortest duration ever achieved between a burst detection and a subsequent optical observation of the same region, representing the best chance to date of 'seeing' the source of the FRB.

In the end, though, the MeerLICHT observations did not detect an optical counterpart to the FRB.

Whilst that may seem disappointing, the result serves to place some valuable constraints on the physical process(es) at play — and of course makes one wonder what was happening in those 3.4 seconds. It also offers encouragement that MeerKAT and MeerLICHT may one day observe an FRB at exactly the same time.

Archival images from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Survey and subsequent observations with the South African Large Telescope identified a pair of interacting galaxies at a redshift of around 0.35 at the position of the FRB, one of which is taken to be the host of the burst, whatever it is.

Deep dive: The final SPIRE Dark Field image map created by combining the Blue, Green and Red SPIRE camera channels together, each channel stacking a total of 141 individual images on top of each other. Credit: Chris Pearson et al.

Astronomers have peered back in time to find what looks like a population of 'hidden' galaxies that could hold the key to unlocking some of the universe's secrets.

If their existence is confirmed it would "effectively break current models of galaxy numbers and evolution".

The possible galaxies may also provide the missing piece of the puzzle for the energy generation in the universe in infrared light.

That's because their combined light would be enough to top-up the energy budget of the universe to the maximum we observe, effectively accounting for all remaining energy emission at these long wavelengths.

Possible evidence of the galaxies' existence was detected on the deepest ever image of the universe at long far-infrared wavelengths, which features almost 2,000 distant galaxies and was created by a team of researchers led by STFC, RAL Space and Imperial College London.

17 July 2025: Friends Lecture: Dr Megan Argo: Astronomy – the next 200 years

7-11 July 2025: National Astronomy Meeting in Durham

13 November 2025: Friends Lecture: Professor Clive Ruggles, Leicester University

25 September 2025: Friends of RAS visit to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland

What the future might hold: Star formation in the spiral galaxy NGC 2283, seen in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy

In 2020 the Royal Astronomical Society celebrated its 200th anniversary.

From the first meeting, when 14 gentlemen sat down to dinner at the Freemason’s Tavern in London in January 1820, the Society has grown to a diverse membership of more than 4,000 geophysicists and astronomers, both amateur and professional.

Astronomy has come a long way in that time, and our understanding of the universe has changed fundamentally. 

What didn’t we know 200 years ago? Where is astronomy going next? Join Dr Megan Argo for a look at some exciting upcoming telescopes and future space missions, and some predictions for what we might discover in the next 200 years.

The lecture will take place on Thursday 17 July at Burlington House in London from 1pm-2pm. Tickets for the event, in-person and online, will be available from 3 July.

Home to the LHC: CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, near Geneva, Switzerland. Credit: CERN

There are still a limited number of tickets available for the Friends of the RAS visit to CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

The trip to Geneva in Switzerland will take place on Thursday 25 September 2025 and will involve an exhibition, followed by a guided tour.

We have booked for a party of 20 people. 

The visit will take most of the day, so participants will need to arrive at least the day before and arrange to leave either that evening or the following day. 

Registration is on a first-come-first-served basis. Spaces are limited but there is a waiting list you can join.

If you know someone who is interested in astronomy or geophysics, why not tell them about the 'Friends of the RAS'?

What do you think of the new bimonthly RAS Friends newsletter? Email us your thoughts to press@ras.ac.uk. We appreciate any feedback and will endeavour to continue developing it further.