The Digital Press

Relics are ancient, compact galaxies that formed most of their stars early and remained unchanged, offering insights into early cosmic mass assembly. A new high-resolution observation of one such relic at redshift 0.3 confirms its compact, disk-like shape and similarity to both local and distant ancient galaxies.

Why it matters: Relics reveal conditions of early galaxy formation, untouched by later mergers or size growth.

The big picture: Studying relics helps trace galaxy evolution phases otherwise hidden by mergers in most galaxies.

Stunning stat: The relic KiDS J0842+0059 has an effective radius of about 1 kiloparsec and an axis ratio of 0.24.

Quick takeaway: Adaptive Optics imaging confirms KiDS J0842+0059 is a compact, disk-like remnant formed before redshift 2.