STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Scientists have peered into the distant past. Astronomers say in the journal Nature they discovered six galaxies that existed 5- and 700 million years after the Big Bang - so billions of years ago. Researchers using the Webb Telescope were so surprised by the discovery they weren't sure it was real at first. I guess that's something that can happen with galaxies from a long time ago that are far, far away. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.