NASA Hubble Spots Most Distant Lensing Galaxy to Date

Astronomers have discovered one of the most distant galaxies to date. Not only that but the galaxy, which breaks the previous record holder by 200 million years, also serves as a cosmic magnifying glass, revealing new clues about the early universe.

The galaxy itself is dated about 9.6 billion years in the past and is massive enough that its gravity bends, magnifies, and distorts light from objects behind it. In this case, the object behind the cosmic lens is a tiny spiral galaxy undergoing a rapid burst of star formation. Its light has taken 10.7 billion years to arrive, and is generally heralded as a rare find.

"When you look more than 9 billion years ago in the early universe, you don't expect to find this type of galaxy lensing at all," said Kim-Vy Tran, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's very difficult to see an alignment between two galaxies in the early universe. Imagine holding a magnifying glass close to you and then moving it much farther away. When you look through a magnifying glass held at arm's length, the chances that you will see an enlarged object are high. But if you move the magnifying glass across the room, your chances of seeing the magnifying glass nearly perfectly aligned with another object beyond it diminishes."

This means that finding a lens as far away as this one is a very rare find indeed. The galaxy itself weights 180 billion times more than our sun and is a massive galaxy for its time. It's also one of the brightest members of a distant cluster of galaxies, called IRC 0218.

What's more interesting is that by comparing the analysis of this far away lens galaxy to more nearby lenses, the researchers can start to understand how dark matter content evolved over time.

The findings reveal a bit more about the evolution of galaxies. Not only that, but it paves the way for future studies on the mysterious dark matter, that makes up the majority of our universe.

The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.