According to NARIT, the 13 newly observed galaxies originated, at the dawn of the universe, some 13 billion years ago.

The institution detailed that they are among the smallest ever found during the early epoch of the universe, with masses measuring 10 to 100 times less than our own Milky Way.

They emerged when the universe was between 550 and 700 million years old, during the period known as the Epoch of Reionization; at this stage, the hot gases left over from the Big Bang (the explosion that gave rise to the universe) began to clump together to form stars and galaxies.

The James Webb Space Telescope is exploring the dawn of the universe by collecting data on their mass, age, shape and even composition, NARIT said.

The discovery, which has already been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is helping astronomers unlock the secrets of the first low-mass galaxies.

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