---
title: "Cosmic Paradox: Why Galaxies in the Early Universe Die from Their Own Stars"
description: "Astronomers have revealed the mystery of \"dead\" galaxies in the early Universe: they die from their own stars! 🌌 Powerful supernova explosions create a wind that blows out the gas necessary for life. Research using the James Webb Telescope has overturned perceptions of the cosmos. 🔭🚀"
date: 2026-08-03T05:14:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/cosmic-paradox-why-galaxies-in-the-early-universe-die-from-their-own-stars
tags: [james-webb, crystal-02, rebecca-davis, royal-astronomical-society, early-universe]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Cosmic Paradox: Why Galaxies in the Early Universe Die from Their Own Stars

![Visualization of galaxy collisions in the early Universe, where bright stars trigger intense star formation and subsequent 'death' of galaxies](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/03/galaiktiki-ranniej-vselennoj-umirajut-ot-sobstvennyh-zvezd/galaiktiki-ranniej-vselennoj-umirajut-ot-sobstvennyh-zvezd-1.webp)

Astronomers have found an explanation for a mystery that has plagued scientists for decades. Why do some galaxies at the very beginning of the Universe's history suddenly stop forming stars and turn into "dead" structures? It turns out the reason lies in a powerful self-destructive mechanism: galaxies literally blow out their own building material.

A new study, published in the prestigious journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, has overturned perceptions of the early evolution of the cosmos. Previously, scientists considered the influence of dark energy or other complex hypotheses, but now the cause has been found in the physics of galactic collisions.

### Anomaly Caught by James Webb

In the first 1–2 billion years after the Big Bang, galaxies were the main "building blocks" of the modern Universe. They grew, merged, and formed new structures. However, the James Webb Telescope (JWST) began detecting strange objects: huge galaxies that, even in their infancy, appeared "passive" and did not form new stars, despite having previously experienced a burst of activity.

Such findings left astrophysicists baffled. For a long time, it was unclear how massive galaxies could exhaust their resources so quickly.

### Case CRISTAL-02: Catastrophe Instead of Birth

The breakthrough was made by a team of researchers led by Rebecca Davies from Swinburne University. Scientists studied the object CRISTAL-02 in detail, which existed only 1 billion years after the Big Bang. It turned out that this was not a single galaxy, but a zone of catastrophic collision of at least two cosmic structures.

Usually, during a galactic merger, gas rushes to the center, causing intense star formation. However, in the case of CRISTAL-02, this process triggered a reverse reaction — a chain reaction of self-destruction:

    - **Cosmic Burst:** The galaxy CRISTAL-02 was forming stars twice as fast as other objects of that era.

    - **Supernova Explosions:** The most massive stars born in this chaos burned out and exploded very quickly.

    - **Galactic Wind:** A series of explosions created a super-powerful flow that began pushing cold gas out of the galaxy — the only material for creating new stars.

### Fatal Gas Leak

The situation for CRISTAL-02 was hopeless. The rate of gas leakage from the galaxy is twice the rate of new star formation. In this scenario, the galaxy completely exhausts its reserves in less than 50 million years and finally "fades".

According to Rebecca Davies, this phenomenon can be compared to the life of a hyperactive metropolis: "Galaxies collide and experience a frantic burst of star birth. But when the largest of them explode as supernovae, they trigger winds that simply blow away the very gas needed for further life".

### Consequences for Science

The discovery has global significance. Scientists have found that almost half of the massive galaxies in the early stages of the Universe's existence actively interact with their neighbors. This proves that the destructive galactic wind is not a single anomaly, but a widespread cosmic process.

New data allows for the adjustment of computer models of the Universe's evolution. Previously, some early galaxies seemed too large and bright to scientists due to the activity of supermassive black holes, creating an optical illusion. Now astronomers plan new observations using JWST to study the dusty regions of CRISTAL-02 and find other galaxies that became victims of their own stellar wind.