Spiral galaxies have distinct internal structures, including a stellar bulge, a disk, and spiral arms. It is unknown when in cosmic history these structures formed. In this study, we analyzed observations of BRI 1335–0417, an intensely star-forming galaxy in the distant Universe, at a redshift of 4.41. The [C ii] gas kinematics shows a steep velocity rise near the galaxy center and has a two-armed spiral morphology, which extends from about 2 to 5 kiloparsecs in radius. We interpret these features as due to a central compact structure such as a bulge, a rotating gas disk, and either spiral arms or tidal tails. These features had formed within 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, long before the peak of cosmic star formation.

螺旋星系具有不同的内部结构，包括恒星凸起、圆盘和旋臂。不知道这些结构在宇宙历史中是何时形成的。在这项研究中，我们分析了 BRI 1335-0417 的观测结果，BRI 1335-0417 是遥远宇宙中一个强烈的恒星形成星系，红移为 4.41。[C ii ] 气体运动学显示在星系中心附近速度急剧上升，并具有双臂螺旋形态，其半径从大约 2 到 5 千秒差距。我们将这些特征解释为中央致密结构，例如凸起、旋转的气盘以及旋臂或潮汐尾。这些特征是在大爆炸后的 14 亿年内形成的，远早于宇宙恒星形成的高峰期。