Although Hubble has previously identified galaxies at this early epoch, astronomers were surprised to find objects 10 to 20 times more luminous than anything seen before.
“These just stuck out like a sore thumb because they are far brighter than we anticipated,” said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
“There are strange things happening… we’re suddenly seeing luminous, massive galaxies quickly build up at such an early time. This was quite unexpected.”