The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a small early galaxy, nicknamed Firefly Sparkle, that is similar to what the Milky Way may have appeared billions of years ago.
The light from Firefly Sparkle, which is behind a large cluster of galaxies, is gravitationally lensed, making it bright enough for Webb to see.
The distortion caused by gravitational lensing gives an exploded view of the galaxy, showing clumps of active star-forming regions and stages of star formation.
The overall mass of Firefly Sparkle is very similar to the hypothetical mass of the Milky Way at that age, and it also has companion dwarf galaxies.