The Milky Way is a mature, grand spiral galaxy, and so are many galaxies around us. Astronomers have assumed that spiral galaxies are the result of many mergers between dwarf galaxies and shouldn't show up until later on in the Universe's evolution. New research using JWST has shown that's not true, with a surprising number of spiral galaxies in the first few billions years of the Universe's history. Spiral arms showed up much earlier than anyone expected.

2024 features the final total solar eclipse for the CONUS until 2044, and much more.