The Webb telescope just found "virgin" galaxies made of the exact same stuff that existed right after the Big Bang.
arXiv · March 18, 2026 · 2603.15761
The Takeaway
Astronomers identified galaxies with almost zero heavy elements like oxygen, suggesting they are forming stars out of the original hydrogen and helium created at the dawn of time. These objects act as perfect time capsules of the very first star-forming events in the universe.
From the abstract
JWST is beginning to uncover a population of extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs, $Z 3$, mostly through serendipitous NIRSpec discoveries and blind slitless spectroscopy. To accelerate our understanding of pristine star formation, we further develop a methodology to identify EMPG candidates from photometry, using the extensive deep medium-band imaging from JADES. Our EMPG candidates at $2.5 < z < 6.5$ exhibit strong photometric boosts by H$\alpha$, yet correspondingly weak boosts by [O III] + H