Astronomers believe this barred spiral galaxy could be the oldest example of its kind ever observed.
Research led by Daniel Ivanov, a graduate student in physics and astronomy at the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, has identified a strong candidate for one of the oldest known spiral galaxies to host a stellar bar. These central structures can be visually prominent and are thought to play a key role in shaping how galaxies grow and change over time. The Milky Way also contains a stellar bar at its center.
The discovery narrows the window for when stellar bars may have first formed in the universe. By examining light from the distant galaxy, known as COSMOS-74706, the research team determined that it is being observed as it appeared roughly 11.5 billion years ago.
“This galaxy was developing bars 2 billion years after the birth of the universe,” Ivanov said. “Two billion years after the Big Bang.”
An Early Glimpse of Galactic Structure
The results were recently presented at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Thursday, January 8, 2026.
The defining feature of these galaxies is right in the name: “A stellar bar is a linear feature at the center of the galaxy,” Ivanov said. The bar isn’t an object itself, but a dense collection of stars and gas that is aligned in such a way that in images taken perpendicular to a galactic plane, there appears to be a bright line bisecting the galaxy.
Stellar bars can influence how a galaxy changes over time by drawing gas from its outer regions toward the center. This inward flow can supply material to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core while also reducing the rate of new star formation across the galaxy’s disk.
Why This Galaxy Stands Out
Other researchers have reported earlier barred spiral galaxies, but the analyses of those are less conclusive because the methods used to analyze the lights’ redshifts are not as definitive as spectroscopy, which was used to validate COSMOS-74706. In other cases, the galaxy’s light was distorted as it passed by a massive object, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.
In essence, Ivanov said, “It’s the highest redshift, spectroscopically confirmed, unlensed barred spiral galaxy.”
He wasn’t necessarily surprised to find a barred spiral galaxy so early in the universe’s evolution. In fact, some simulations suggest bars forming at redshift 5, or about 12.5 billion years ago. But, Ivanov said, “In principle, I think that this is not an epoch in which you expect to find many of these objects. It helps to constrain the timescales of bar formation. And it’s just really interesting.”
Meeting: 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society
This work is based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with data from Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127, which is supported by NASA. Work was also supported by the Brinson Foundation.
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Astronomers believe this barred spiral galaxy could be the oldest example of its kind ever observed.
WHY? WHY? WHY?
Please ask the astronomers to think deeply:
1. Where does this barred spiral galaxy in space come from?
2. Does this barred spiral galaxy in space come from God?
3. Could this barred spiral galaxy in space possibly originate from the dynamic evolution of space itself?
When we pursue the ultimate truth of all things, the space in which our bodies and all things exist may itself be the final and deepest puzzle we need to explore. This is not only the pursuit of physics, but also the most magnificent exploration of the origin of the universe by human reason.
Based on the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT), space is an uniformly incompressible physical entity. Space-time vortices are the products of topological phase transitions of the tipping points in space, are the point defects in spacetime. Point defects do not only impact the thermodynamic properties, but are also central to kinetic processes. They create all things and shape the world through spin and self-organization.
In today’s physics, some so-called peer-reviewed publications—including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, Science Bulletin, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
and go on.
Is this the counterintuitive science they widely promote? Compromising with pseudo academic publications and peer review by pseudo scholars is an insult to science and public intelligence. Some so-called scholars no longer understand what shame is. The study of Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reminds us that the most profound problems in physics often lie at the intersection of different theories. By exploring these border regions, we can not only resolve contradictions in existing theories but also discover new physical phenomena and application possibilities.
Under the topological vortex architecture, it is highly challenging for even two hydrogen atoms or two quarks to be perfectly symmetrical, let alone counter-rotating two sets of cobalt-60. Contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, Science Bulletin, etc.) stubbornly believe that two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, constructing a more shocking pseudoscientific theoretical framework in the history of science than the “geocentric model”. This pseudo scientific framework and system have seriously hindered scientific progress and social development.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time. A large amount of pseudo scientific research has been conducted, and countless pseudo scientific papers have been published, causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
Complexity does not necessarily mean that there is no logical and architectural framework to follow. Mathematics is the language and tool that reveals the motion of spacetime, rather than the motion itself. Although the physical form of spacetime vortices is extremely simple, their interaction patterns are highly complex, and we must develop more and richer mathematical languages to describe and understand them.
The development of the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reflects a progression from concrete physical phenomena to abstract mathematical modeling and, ultimately, to interdisciplinary unification. Its core innovation lies in forging the continuous spacetime geometry of general relativity with the discrete interactions of quantum field theory within the same topological dynamical system. The core idea of TVT — space is physical, and matter is its topological excitation—already provides a solid and elegant scientific path for understanding the origin of all things.
——Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/microscope-spacecrafts-most-precise-test-of-key-component-of-the-theory-of-general-relativity/#comment-909171 and https://t.pineal.cn/blogs/6255/A-Mathematical-and-Physical-Analysis-On-the-Origin-of-Objects.
Any so-called evidence tainted by human intervention risks distorting our understanding and cognition of the intrinsic dynamics of natural laws.
—— Excerpted from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1996561896279667777.
Example 1: Two sets of cobalt-60 are manually rotated in opposite directions, and even without detection, people around the world know that they will not be symmetrical because these two objects are not mirror images of each other at all. However, a group of so-called physicists and so-called academic publications do not believe it. They conducted experiments and the results were indeed asymmetric, but they still firmly believed that these two objects were mirror images of each other, and the asymmetry was due to a violation of the previous natural laws (CP violation). In the history of science, there can never be a dirtier and uglier operation and explanation than this. These people and the so-called academic publications they manipulate no longer know what shame is.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947619.
Example 2: Please see how the so-called “mystery of θ – τ” is explained: θ and τ are completely identical in all measurable physical properties such as mass, lifetime, charge, spin, etc. However, experimental observations have shown that the θ meson decays into two π mesons, while the τ meson decays into three π mesons, making it difficult for physicists to explain why they are so similar. Physicist Martin Block proposed a highly challenging idea: θ and τ are the same particle, but in weak interactions, parity is not conserved. An easy to understand explanation is the following analogy:: There are two boxes of apples with identical weight, color, and taste. However, when one box is opened, there are two apples, while when the other box is opened, there are three apples. This confuses the old farmer who buys apples. He circled around the orchard and came up with a highly challenging idea: these two boxes of apples are not from the same tree, so they are the same.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947686.
Any so-called evidence tainted by human intervention risks distorting our understanding and cognition of the intrinsic dynamics of natural laws.
—— Excerpted from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1996561896279667777.
Example 1: Two sets of cobalt-60 are manually rotated in opposite directions, and even without detection, people around the world know that they will not be symmetrical because these two objects are not mirror images of each other at all. However, a group of so-called physicists and so-called academic publications do not believe it. They conducted experiments and the results were indeed asymmetric, but they still firmly believed that these two objects were mirror images of each other, and the asymmetry was due to a violation of the previous natural laws (CP violation). In the history of science, there can never be a dirtier and uglier operation and explanation than this. These people and the so-called academic publications they manipulate no longer know what shame is.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947619.
Example 2: Please see how the so-called “mystery of θ – τ” is explained: θ and τ are completely identical in all measurable physical properties such as mass, lifetime, charge, spin, etc. However, experimental observations have shown that the θ meson decays into two π mesons, while the τ meson decays into three π mesons, making it difficult for physicists to explain why they are so similar. Physicist Martin Block proposed a highly challenging idea: θ and τ are the same particle, but in weak interactions, parity is not conserved. An easy to understand explanation is the following analogy:: There are two boxes of apples with identical weight, color, and taste. However, when one box is opened, there are two apples, while when the other box is opened, there are three apples. This confuses the old farmer who buys apples. He circled around the orchard and came up with a highly challenging idea: these two boxes of apples are not from the same tree, so they are the same.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947686.
Matter as the Topological Child of Space.
Within the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) framework, the question of the origin of objects in space finds a naturalistic answer:
1)Matter is not foreign but a product of topological phase transitions of space’s own fundamental physical property (superfluidity) under specific conditions [5, 6];
2)The diversity of objects stems from the diverse configurations of topological defects (vortices, knots, linked rings, etc.) [4];
3)This process is entirely described by mathematically rigorous topological invariants and nonlinear dynamics, requiring no introduction of supernatural assumptions.
This picture not only dispels the mystery of material origin but also provides a new perspective of matter-spacetime unity: the universe we inhabit may be a vast quantum superfluid, wherein all things—from elementary particles to galaxies—are its ripples, vortices, and knots. This is both poetic and mathematically rigorous.
TVT is still under development, and its specific mathematical formulation and experimental verification require further research. However, its core idea—space is physical, and matter is its topological excitation—already provides a solid and elegant scientific path for understanding the origin of all things.
——Excerpted from https://t.pineal.cn/blogs/6255/A-Mathematical-and-Physical-Analysis-On-the-Origin-of-Objects.