On February 26, 2011, Hubble Telescope found the most distant galaxy anyone has ever found previously. It took Hubble eighty-seven hours to find it! The Hubble Telescope found it with its new infrared camera that excels in finding galaxies at “redshifts 8 and 10 (650 and 500 million years after the Big Bang, respectively).” Hubble had to look through ninety-six percent of the known universe, and it had to look long and hard to find even this galaxy, titled UDFj-39546284. It is a compact galaxy of blue stars. The universe was only “five hundred million years old at that time” when this galaxy was formed. Comparing this time to the current age of the universe, which is an estimated thirteen thousand-seven hundred million years old. It’s estimated that this galaxy is, in fact, 13.2 billion light-years away! Yet UDFj-39546284 is tiny; over “one hundred such mini-galaxies” would make up our Milky Way, which is in no terms a truly large galaxy.
This discovery offers astronomers solid proof of galaxy formation near the beginning of the universe; it solidifies the hierarchical theory of galaxy formation, in which “galaxies grew and merged under the gravitational influence of dark matter.”
I think this is super cool. I have always been fascinated by the idea of the universe—especially of the known universe. I suppose I’m a “big-picture” person, but I think finding the oldest known galaxy is amazing, because not only can this give definitive proof and tools for astronomers, the simple concept of the reach of the known universe and the oldest galaxy at the edge of the universe is incredible.
Site: http://www.universetoday.com/82855/long-ago-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away/
This is super interesting. It's always helpful to find the history behind something so that we can make sense of what's going on now. The more we know about other galaxies the more we can learn about our own. I'm also amazed that humans...HUMANS were able to create a tool so advanced that it can detect other galaxies from far away. It honestly blows my mind. Cool article!
ReplyDeleteThis is very cool, even though i am a little confused about some of it. Amazing still!
ReplyDeleteWow this is very cool. It strange to think of something that far away but the fact that we can observe it is extorornary. Its always interesting to think about what we might find next. Really sweet article
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