Ancient Galaxies

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Astronomers have found a group of very old galaxies in the early stages of forming a galaxy cluster. This collection of 12 galaxies is the oldest ever found - they existed roughly 13 billion years ago!  This is only a short time after after the birth of the Universe. 

To find this special early galaxy cluster in the making, astronomers studied a giant map of the Universe taken by the Subaru Telescope in Hawai’i, USA. They noticed an area that was very crowded. This turned out to be a group of very old galaxies that were beginning to group together under the force of gravity.

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