The discovery of a ‘weird’ and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could ‘help us understand how the cosmic story began’, astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found approximately one billion years after the Big Bang and stood out because it has an odd, never-before-seen light signature — indicating that its gas is outshining its stars. The ‘totally new phenomena’ is significant, researchers say, because it could be the missing-link phase of galactic evolution between the Universe’s first stars and familiar, well-established galaxies.