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James Webb Telescope discovers The Cosmic Vine - 20 galaxies
The Cosmic Vine is a massive, elongated structure of 20 closely packed, gravitationally bound galaxies discovered by astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Identified in the Extended Groth Strip (a region between the constellations Ursa Major and Boötes), this "vine-like" megastructure stretches over 13 million light-years in length and is about 650,000 light-years wide, with a mass equivalent to approximately 260 billion suns. It was observed at a redshift of z = 3.44, meaning its light took around 11–12 billion years to reach us, dating it to when the universe was roughly 1.9–2 billion years old (about 14% of its current age of 13.8 billion years
 | James Webb spotted a 13-million-light-year-long chain of galaxies The James Webb Space Telescope discovered something extraordinary: a sprawling chain of 20 connected galaxies winding through deep space – all from a time when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old. Astronomers are calling it the “Cosmic Vine.” Located in a patch of sky called the Extended Groth Strip, it stretches more than 13 million light-years long, dwarfing our own Milky Way by more than 100 times. |
Each galaxy in the chain lies at a redshift of around 3.44, meaning their light has traveled for nearly 12 billion years before reaching JWST, which means this structure existed when the universe was just over 1.5 billion years old, or barely 10% of its current age.
What’s remarkable is that these galaxies aren’t just near each other by chance – they’re gravitationally connected, embedded in a filament of gas and dark matter that links them into one coherent structure. At an estimated mass of 260 billion solar masses, the Vine may one day collapse under its own gravity to form a galaxy cluster – the largest type of structure in the universe, often containing thousands of galaxies.
Even more surprising? Two of the Cosmic Vine’s largest galaxies have already stopped forming stars. These so-called “quenched” or “quiescent” galaxies are rare in the early universe, where most galaxies are still busy churning out stars. The team suspects these galaxies may have recently undergone violent mergers, triggering intense bursts of star formation that rapidly used up their gas.
This discovery challenges long-held assumptions about how quickly large-scale structures formed in the early universe. Previously, it was believed that such massive, organized systems took billions of years to evolve. But now, observations from JWST suggest that cosmic filaments and proto-clusters were forming far earlier, and at a much larger scale, than theory had predicted.
The Cosmic Vine joins a growing list of JWST discoveries that are reshaping our timeline of the early cosmos, revealing massive galaxies, mysterious starless voids, and now, galaxy chains that defy what we thought was possible this early on.
As always with Webb, the more we see, the more questions we uncover. How common are these early structures? What mechanisms drive such rapid star formation and sudden quenching in the ancient universe? And how many more cosmic megastructures are still out there, waiting to be found?
What’s remarkable is that these galaxies aren’t just near each other by chance – they’re gravitationally connected, embedded in a filament of gas and dark matter that links them into one coherent structure. At an estimated mass of 260 billion solar masses, the Vine may one day collapse under its own gravity to form a galaxy cluster – the largest type of structure in the universe, often containing thousands of galaxies.
Even more surprising? Two of the Cosmic Vine’s largest galaxies have already stopped forming stars. These so-called “quenched” or “quiescent” galaxies are rare in the early universe, where most galaxies are still busy churning out stars. The team suspects these galaxies may have recently undergone violent mergers, triggering intense bursts of star formation that rapidly used up their gas.
This discovery challenges long-held assumptions about how quickly large-scale structures formed in the early universe. Previously, it was believed that such massive, organized systems took billions of years to evolve. But now, observations from JWST suggest that cosmic filaments and proto-clusters were forming far earlier, and at a much larger scale, than theory had predicted.
The Cosmic Vine joins a growing list of JWST discoveries that are reshaping our timeline of the early cosmos, revealing massive galaxies, mysterious starless voids, and now, galaxy chains that defy what we thought was possible this early on.
As always with Webb, the more we see, the more questions we uncover. How common are these early structures? What mechanisms drive such rapid star formation and sudden quenching in the ancient universe? And how many more cosmic megastructures are still out there, waiting to be found?
