Space
Astronomers Discover the Farthest Galaxy from Earth at the Dawn of the Cosmos
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: May 06, 2015 07:18 AM EDT
Scientists have officially discovered the farthest galaxy from Earth. They've found a galaxy at a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its current age.
In this latest effort, the researchers uncovered a luminous galaxy more than 13 billion years in the past. Using the powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the W.M. Keck's Observatory's telescope, the researchers managed to determine its exact distance from Earth.
The galaxy itself is named EGS-zs8-1, and was originally identified based on it particular colors in images from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. It's one of the brightest and most massive objects in the early universe.
The galaxy has built more than 15 percent of the mass of our own Milky Way. However, it only had 670 million years to do so. This suggests that the galaxy formed rapidly, and that it creates stars about 80 times faster than our own galaxy.
The galaxy actually existed during an important change in the universe. Hydrogen between galaxies was transitioning from a neutral state to an ionized state.
'It appears that the young stars in the early galaxies like EGS-zs8-1 were the main drivers for this transition, called reionization," said Rychard Bouwens, co-author of the new study, in a news release.
Together, the new findings also pose new questions. They confirm that massive galaxies existed in the early history of the universe, but also show that these galaxies had very different physical properties than the galaxies of today.
"Our current observations indicate that it will be very easy to measure accurate distances to these distant galaxies in the future with the James Webb Space Telescope," said Garth Illingworth, co-author of the study. "The result of JWST's upcoming measurements will provide a much more complete picture of the formation of galaxies at the cosmic dawn."
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
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NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
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First Posted: May 06, 2015 07:18 AM EDT
Scientists have officially discovered the farthest galaxy from Earth. They've found a galaxy at a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its current age.
In this latest effort, the researchers uncovered a luminous galaxy more than 13 billion years in the past. Using the powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the W.M. Keck's Observatory's telescope, the researchers managed to determine its exact distance from Earth.
The galaxy itself is named EGS-zs8-1, and was originally identified based on it particular colors in images from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. It's one of the brightest and most massive objects in the early universe.
The galaxy has built more than 15 percent of the mass of our own Milky Way. However, it only had 670 million years to do so. This suggests that the galaxy formed rapidly, and that it creates stars about 80 times faster than our own galaxy.
The galaxy actually existed during an important change in the universe. Hydrogen between galaxies was transitioning from a neutral state to an ionized state.
'It appears that the young stars in the early galaxies like EGS-zs8-1 were the main drivers for this transition, called reionization," said Rychard Bouwens, co-author of the new study, in a news release.
Together, the new findings also pose new questions. They confirm that massive galaxies existed in the early history of the universe, but also show that these galaxies had very different physical properties than the galaxies of today.
"Our current observations indicate that it will be very easy to measure accurate distances to these distant galaxies in the future with the James Webb Space Telescope," said Garth Illingworth, co-author of the study. "The result of JWST's upcoming measurements will provide a much more complete picture of the formation of galaxies at the cosmic dawn."
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone