Early Universe’s Metal-Rich Dusty Galaxies Unearthed by JWST and ALMA

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have identified 70 dusty, star-forming galaxies at the edge of the observable universe, seen less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang. From an initial set of around 400 bright galaxies, JWST follow-up confirmed these candidates as metal-rich, suggesting that heavy-element production and star formation began earlier than current models predict, potentially reshaping our understanding of cosmic evolution and linking these galaxies to both ultrabright early systems and older, quiescent populations.