Astronomers, led by Ronaldo Laishram from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, have discovered a significant protocluster of galaxies named Loktak, which existed about 12.6 billion years ago. Using the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team found that young galaxies within this protocluster were influenced by their environment at a time when the Universe was only 1.2 billion years old. The study revealed that while star formation rates in these galaxies were similar to those in less dense environments, the overall size of the galaxies in Loktak was approximately 1.4 times larger. This indicates that the growth of galaxies was not only a result of internal processes but also significantly shaped by their surroundings early in their development. The findings challenge previous assumptions about the timing of environmental influences on galaxy evolution. Moving forward, the team plans to investigate other early protoclusters to determine if these influences are widespread throughout the early Universe.