Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Physics Forum Most Distant Galaxy Found

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 - Two Hours Ago
By combining the power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space
telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in
space, astronomers have set a new record for finding the most
distant galaxy seen in the universe.

The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, was observed
420 million years after the big bang, the theorized beginning of the universe.
Its light has traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth.
This is the latest discovery that uses Gravitational Lensing,
where light from MACS0647-JD took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015.

Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. Because of gravitational lensing, the CLASH research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope. The cluster's gravity boosted the light from the faraway galaxy, making the images appear about eight, seven, and two times brighter than they otherwise would, that enabled astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently and with greater confidence.

The CLASH team identified multiple images of eight galaxies
lensed by the galaxy cluster. Their positions allowed the team
to produce a map of the cluster's mass, which is primarily
composed of dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible form of
matter that makes up the bulk of the universe's mass. "It's like a big puzzle," said Coe. "We have to arrange the
mass in the cluster so that it deflects the light of each galaxy to the positions observed.

I have only precis'd the above article.
For the complete read goto:-

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/15/4989237/nasas-great-observatories-find.html

For Images and more info goto:-

http://hubblesite.org/news/2012/36

Interesting link, Mike. This is the opening of an article in Discover Mag. from a few days ago. For some reason it refuses to let me post the link.

Must be the "finding" season.

Scientists using a telescope atop a Hawaiian volcano have detected a pair of extra-bright supernovae, or star explosions, one of which is the oldest, most-distant supernova ever detected.

That explosion occurred 12 billion years ago, making it a billion years older than the oldest supernova ever seen before.