Astronomers observed a young galaxy, existing when the universe was only 4% of its current age. It had a mass of interstellar dust, formed during explosions of an earlier generation of stars.
This artist’s impression shows what the very distant young galaxy A2744_YD4 might look like. Observations using ALMA have shown that this galaxy, seen when the Universe was just 4% of its current age, is rich in dust. Such dust was produced by an earlier generation of stars and these observations provide insights into the birth and explosive deaths of the very first stars in the Universe.