Indian scientists in Pune have reported a major discovery that adds a new chapter to our understanding of how the early universe evolved. They have identified a massive ancient galaxy named Alaknanda, a system that astonishingly resembles the Milky Way, which is the galaxy that holds our own Solar System.

Their work, published in a respected European astronomy journal, highlights that Alaknanda is not an ordinary early-age galaxy. It appears unusually mature, with a structure that looks far more organised than what scientists believed possible for galaxies formed so early in cosmic history.

This achievement comes from researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR) in Pune. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, they observed that Alaknanda formed 12 billion years ago, which means it took shape when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old. At such an early time, most galaxies were expected to be small, scattered and unstable, often lacking any clear pattern. But Alaknanda defies that expectation. It has the elegant order of a classic spiral galaxy, with two bright, symmetrical arms that classify it as a grand design spiral.

Professor Yogesh Wadadekar explained that the newly identified galaxy looked surprisingly well-structured, more like a regular galaxy than a primitive one from the early universe. Rashi Jain, the PhD student who led the research, described her findings through a statement that remains central to the discovery: “The galaxy looks remarkably similar to our own Milky Way despite being present when the universe was only 10 per cent of its current age.”

Jain also shared the story behind the name Alaknanda, connecting it to a familiar part of Indian heritage. The name reflects a thoughtful comparison rooted in Indian rivers and their symbolic meaning. As she explained, “Just as the Alaknanda is the sister river of the Mandakini river, which is also the Hindi name for our own Milky Way galaxy, we thought it fitting to name this distant spiral galaxy after the Alaknanda river”. This naming choice has given the galaxy both scientific identity and cultural resonance.

What makes Alaknanda different from other galaxies?

Alaknanda formed at an age when the universe was still extremely young, only 1.5 billion years old, compared to the present age of 13.8 billion years. According to Professor Wadadekar, galaxies of this size normally require at least 3 billion years to develop stable spiral arms. He noted that even the Milky Way took billions of years to form its spiral discs. Yet Alaknanda already shows a well-defined disc at the centre, with two balanced arms wrapping around a bright bulge, suggesting an advanced level of organisation far earlier than expected.

While closely examining its structure, Jain noticed a distinctive pattern that astronomers often associate with star-forming regions in spiral galaxies. She stated, “We could see the typical ‘beads-on a-string’ pattern which is like clusters of stars along the spiral arms, similar to what we see in nearby spiral galaxies today.” This alone indicates how unusually mature Alaknanda was during a time when galaxies were generally still developing.

The researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to identify the galaxy, which lies 12 billion light-years away and measures about 30,000 light-years across. Jain pointed out that the discovery was surprising because it suggests that complex and organised galaxies were forming much earlier than scientists had predicted. When she first informed Professor Wadadekar about what she had found, his reaction showed a mix of disbelief and amazement. He remarked, “It’s astonishing how such a large galaxy with spiral arms could have existed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.”

Up until this discovery, scientists believed that stable spiral galaxies like the Milky Way only emerged several billion years after they had enough time to cool, settle, and shape themselves. But Alaknanda challenges this long-held view by presenting evidence that some galaxies achieved organised forms much sooner.

Jain discovered Alaknanda while examining information from around 70,000 celestial objects, yet only one galaxy among them displayed the features of a grand design spiral. As she described it: “Only one there that was a grand design spiral galaxy, spanning approximately 30,000 light-years in diameter.” Professor Wadadekar added more detail about its size and brightness: “It’s massive, it’s one-third of the Milky Way in size, and has 10 billion stars.”

The galaxy also appears to be forming new stars at a rate 20–30 times faster than that of the Milky Way today. The research team plans to request additional observation time on the James Webb Space Telescope or the ALMA observatory in Chile to learn more about Alaknanda’s structure, its formation history, and its rapid star-building activity.

Professor Wadadekar explained that this galaxy managed to gather material equal to 10 billion times the mass of the Sun and shape it into a spiral disc in only a few hundred million years. As he put it, “Alaknanda reveals that the early Universe was capable of far more rapid galaxy assembly than we anticipated.”

Scientists estimate that the universe holds around a hundred billion galaxies, each containing billions of stars and possibly countless planets. Many of these galaxies began forming only a few million years after the Big Bang, at a time when the universe was turbulent and filled with small, irregular systems. But with advanced telescopes like the James Webb, researchers now see that larger and more organised galaxies started appearing far earlier than previously understood.