Heavyweight galaxies puzzle astronomers

Liverpool John Moores University astronomers have discovered large galaxies some two thirds of the way back in time to the big bang. This surprising find casts doubt on theories of how the biggest galaxies form. The conventional view is that the heaviest galaxies in the Universe started out very small and light and have gained most of their weight relatively recently by cannibalising other galaxies that came too close. However, these new findings, to be published in Nature on 2 April, suggest that rather than being svelte, some galaxies in the distant past weighed just as much as the monsters we see in the Universe today...

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