The article says this galaxy was just becoming visible as the first stars were accreting enough material to generate light. Most of the light is generated near the core of the galaxy, giving the impression of a galaxy far smaller than ours. Either it IS smaller than the Milky Way due to relatively few collisions at that time; or, the cores of galaxies harbor the oldest stars, the first to blink on, the first to go supernova, etc.

If that galaxy is surrounded by gas and dust that hasn't yet formed stars, why is it visible? Even in the IR spectrum, surely the gas accreting around it would be so thick we wouldn't see anything but a solid wall of infrared, and shorter wavelengths might be blocked completely... ?

Visible stars suggests that this proto-galaxy does not have as much gas around it as it should. Either the gases are transparent, or the universe had less matter in it than it does today... ?

Or we are simply seeing the minimum luminous intensity that a galaxy needed at that time to be visible though all the accreting gases. This might suggest there are older galaxies, but they are optically opaque and thermally uniform.

I'd like to know if any of these questions are answerable.