The anatomy of an enigma: a team of astronomers using the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBT) atop Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona collected 17 hours’ worth of light from the abnormally massive elliptical galaxy dubbed C1-23152 (image above). The young galaxy is 12 billion light years away and defies conventional models of its origins as it must have accumulated its enormous mass within 1.8 billion years after the big bang, less than 13% of the present age of the universe. Most elliptical galaxies, such as C1-23152 at the center of a galaxy cluster, take many billions of years to reach their massive sizes. Hence the enduring mystery of how and why these monster objects exist in the early universe.