Astronomers Find The Oldest, Most Distant Galaxy We've Seen Yet

Fanghawk

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Astronomers Find The Oldest, Most Distant Galaxy We've Seen Yet

The oldest, most-distant galaxy is so far away, we're literally looking at the universe's early years to study it.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139251-Hubble-Space-Telescope-Looks-at-Galaxy-IC-335>Space is big. Really, really, really big - on a scale the human mind can have trouble comprehending. <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127743-Voyager-1-Enters-Interstellar-Space>It took the Voyager satellite nearly 40 years just to leave our solar system, and that's barely a fraction of the universe's size. So when I say science has a new record for the most-distant galaxy from Earth, it's a phenomenal distance. That galaxy is EGS-zs8-1, and you can reach it in a mere 13.1 billion light years.

Or rather, you would have reached it if you'd started the trip billions of years ago. EGS-zs8-1 is so far away that it's showing light from the early years of the universe - when all of known space was 670 million years old. If you take universal expansion into account, EGS-zs8-1 is more likely to be 30 billion light years away by now.

"We're actually looking back through 95% of all time to see this galaxy," UC Santa Cruz astronomer Garth Illingworth explained. "It's really a galaxy in its infancy ... when the universe was in its infancy."

So what's it like being a galaxy in the early days of the universe? In EGS-zs8-1's case, incredibly hectic. The galaxy is churning out new stars at 80 times the rate our Milky Way does today. That makes EGS-zs8-1 far brighter than other galaxies from that distance, which almost led scientists to believe the galaxy was closer to us. It was only when astronomers confirmed its redshift - how fast its moving away from us - that it took the record for the most distant galaxy from Earth.

Not that the team behind this study believe EGS-zs8-1 will be the record holder for long. "You don't get to be record holder very long in this business," Illingworth said, "which is good because ultimately we are trying to learn about the universe. So more is better."

Source: <a href=http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/804/2/L30/article>The Astrophysical Journal Letters, via <a href=http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-most-distant-galaxy-early-universe-big-bang-reionization-20150505-story.html>LA Times

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Tiamat666

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After I die, my spirit will travel the universe to explore countless spectacular worlds, alien cultures with unfamiliar customs, unknown legends and foreign histories, fantastic alien landscapes and cosmic rainbows, dying stars, newborn planets, fates and sights beyond imagination.

That is my hope and my dream.
 

mruuh

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Tiamat666 said:
After I die, my spirit will travel the universe to explore countless spectacular worlds, alien cultures with unfamiliar customs, unknown legends and foreign histories, fantastic alien landscapes and cosmic rainbows, dying stars, newborn planets, fates and sights beyond imagination.
...with blackjack. And hookers.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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mruuh said:
Tiamat666 said:
After I die, my spirit will travel the universe to explore countless spectacular worlds, alien cultures with unfamiliar customs, unknown legends and foreign histories, fantastic alien landscapes and cosmic rainbows, dying stars, newborn planets, fates and sights beyond imagination.
...with blackjack. And hookers.
In fact, forget about the blackjack! And the interstellar journey!

OT: Discoveries like these make me wish I had a passion for science like the people who make these findings do. To think we're seeing things that happened before there was any life on Earth is really fascinating.
 

Tiamat666

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mruuh said:
Tiamat666 said:
After I die, my spirit will travel the universe to explore countless spectacular worlds, alien cultures with unfamiliar customs, unknown legends and foreign histories, fantastic alien landscapes and cosmic rainbows, dying stars, newborn planets, fates and sights beyond imagination.
...with blackjack. And hookers.
:)

I wouldn't mind an Asari companion for comfort in lonely moments. :D
 

gridsleep

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I wonder if anyone in that galaxy is looking at our Milky Way and announcing that the oldest, most distant galaxy ever seen has been discovered.
 

L. Declis

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gridsleep said:
I wonder if anyone in that galaxy is looking at our Milky Way and announcing that the oldest, most distant galaxy ever seen has been discovered.
Probably announcing they have found the galaxy that holds the stupidest form of life.