James Webb telescope finds Milky Way’s long-lost twin 9 billion years in the past

A sparkling cannibal galaxy discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope appears to be a "very early" mirror image of the Milky Way, and it could help astronomers understand how our galaxy took shape, a new study has revealed.

Located 9 billion light-years from Earth, the galaxy is named the "Sparkler" after the dwarf galaxies and two dozen globular clusters — swarms of millions of stars bound together by gravity — that shine around it. According to the study authors, the galaxy is voraciously gorging upon these nearby objects to grow ever larger.