Astronomers used ALMA to study a Milky Way-like galaxy that existed more than 13 billion years ago and found it looks remarkably modern.

Astronomers have found a galaxy that looks surprisingly similar to the Milky Way. What’s amazing is that the galaxy is seen at a time when the Universe was only 700 million years old, before large and ordered spiral galaxies were expected to be common. Dubbed REBELS-25, the galaxy was studied by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The data even hint at other evolved features like a central elongated bar and spiral arms.