ALMA discovers rotating infant galaxy with help of natural cosmic telescope

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers found a rotating baby galaxy 1/100th the size of the Milky Way at a time when the universe was only 7 percent of its present age. Thanks to assistance by the gravitational lens effect, the team was able to explore for the first time the nature of small and dark "normal galaxies" in the early universe, representative of the main population of the first galaxies, which greatly advances our understanding of the initial phase of galaxy evolution.