Oxygen found in most distant known galaxy from Earth

Oxygen has been found in the most distant galaxy ever discovered.

Known as JADES-GS-z14-0, the galaxy was detected last year by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope.

Its light took more than thirteen billion years to reach Earth, meaning it can reveal what the universe was like when it was just 300 million years old.

Astronomers say that the discovery provides evidence that the universe developed much faster after the Big Bang than previously thought.

What have scientists discovered?

The galaxy was discovered last year thanks to Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope

The study was carried out by two teams of experts - one from Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the other by the Scuola Normale Superiore University in Pisa, Italy.

They both used data from the Alma telescope in the Chilean desert.

According to the European Southern Observatory, galaxies usually start their lives full of young stars, which are made mostly of light elements such as hydrogen and helium.

As stars evolve, they create heavier elements like oxygen, which then gets scattered through their galaxy after they die.

Researchers previously believed that a galaxy such as JADES-GS-z14-0, which is only 300 million years old, was therefore too young to contain oxygen.

However, the two different teams of astronomers found that despite its young age, JADES-GS-z14-0 contained around 10 times more heavy elements than expected.

Sander Schouws, from Leiden Observatory, said: "The results show the galaxy has formed very rapidly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than was expected."

Stefano Carniani, from the Scuola Normale Superiore, added: "I was astonished by the unexpected results because they opened a new view on the first phases of galaxy evolution.

"The evidence that a galaxy is already mature in the infant Universe raises questions about when and how galaxies formed," he explained.