Lurking about 13.1-billion light-years away is the coolest galaxy that you"ll hear about this year (seriously, it"s awesome). What makes this wanderer so interesting? First, it has been dubbed with the exceedingly catchy name z8_GND_5296. Okay...so maybe the name is terribly bland and uninteresting, but don"t let that fool you, because this galaxy is unique. At least, it is unique to us--it is the most distant galaxy ever discovered!
An international team of astronomers first observed this galaxy with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. This find was recently confirmed by the Keck Observatory based in Hawaii. So, just how distant is z8_GND_5296? Well, it formed a mere 700-million years after the big bang, meaning that the galaxy is 30 billion light-years away. How did we determine this?
To find out, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-discover-most-distant-galaxy-to-date/
Image source: NASA
Edited by the fantastic: All Science All the Time
This is the official blog for From Quarks to Quasars. Visit us at out main site for the lastest in science and astronomy.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Scientists Discover Most Distant Galaxy to Date
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment