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Galaxy MXDFz4.4 (Artist’s Concept)

Illustration shows a closeup of a galaxy forming in the early universe. It appears chaotic and takes up most of the frame, from bottom left to top right. At the center are several bright white and blue blobs, which are areas of concentrated star formation. The blue becomes slightly darker in areas around this, taking up more than half of the galaxy’s overall size. There are smaller regions of bright blue star formation throughout this section. The galaxy’s edges, also irregularly shaped, are a medium blue, and smaller areas of star formation are apparent. The black background of space surrounds the galaxy.

This illustration portrays galaxy MXDFz4.4, which was bursting with young, massive stars that were tightly packed together. The galaxy existed only 1.4 billion years after the big bang, when the universe was still a mix of opaque and transparent gas as the Era of Reionization was gradually ending.

This concept is based on images and data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which show the younger stellar populations, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which detail the galaxy’s older stars.

A research team led by Ilias Goovaerts, a postdoctoral fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, used Hubble to show that the galaxy’s younger stars formed within the last few million years of the galaxy’s existence and transformed the space around them from opaque to clear.

MXDFz4.4 is about 100 times smaller by area than our Milky Way galaxy, but it is forming stars up to 10 times faster.

  • Release Date
    June 23, 2026
  • Science Release
    Hubble Details Early Galaxy Transforming Neighborhood
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Thousands of galaxies appear across the black background of space. The galaxies range in size, from big blobs and larger face-on spirals to short lines and tiny dots. The galaxies appear in a variety of colors, including orange, white, pink, and blue. One prominent foreground star appears toward the lower right with several diffraction spikes. A white square highlights one tiny pinpoint of blue light in the top third, which is blown up in a box above it and labeled MXDFz4.4. The galaxy has a light blue core with some yellow and red blotches around its edges.

Galaxy MXDFz4.4 (Hubble and Webb Image)

Detailed visible-light images from Hubble reveal that several bursts of younger stars cleared the space in and around galaxy MXDFz4.4. Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain this transition — and Hubble has provided the first example in this time period.

Image with compass arrows and color key. Thousands of galaxies appear across the black background of space in a range of sizes and colors. A white square highlights one pinpoint of blue light in the top third, which is blown up in a box above it and labeled MXDFz4.4. To the top left is a color key showing which HST ACS/WFC and JWST NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color was assigned to each. Hubble: F435W (blue), F606W, F775W, F814W, F850LP (green); JWST: F090W, F115W, F150W, F182M, F200W, F210M, F277W, F335M, F356W, F410M, F430M, F444W (red). At the bottom left is a scale bar labeled 30 arcseconds. The length of the scale bar is about one fourth of the image. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 9 ou2019clock. The north arrow points toward 120 ou2019clock.

Galaxy MXDFz4.4 (Hubble and Webb Compass Image)

This shows the galaxy MXDFz4.4, enlarged at right, in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), captured by both the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera).

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Details

Last Updated
Jun 23, 2026
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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