Blast from Past: Ancient Galaxy Spotted 13 Billion Light Years Away
Researchers have discovered a galaxy that is oldest and the farthest to have come their way.
The galaxy named EGS-zs8-1 is about 13.1 billion light years away from Earth. It was formed when the universe was only five percent of its present age. Researchers at Yale University and University of California Santa Cruz discovered the galaxy through its unique color signal in data generated by Spitzer and Hubble telescopes. Its distance was confirmed by the more powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the Keck Telescope at Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
"It has already built more than 15 percent of the mass of our own Milky Way today. But it had only 670 million years to do so. The universe was still very young then," said lead author Pascal Oesch of Yale University.
Researchers noted that the galaxy's star creating rate was 80 times faster than Milky Way. They also noticed that EGS-zs8-1 formed at a time in the universe hydrogen was transforming from neutral to ionized state.
"It appears that the young stars in the early galaxies like EGS-zs8-1 were the main drivers for this transition called reionization," said coauthor Rychard Bouwens.
"One of the most dramatic discoveries from Hubble and Spitzer in recent years is the unexpected number of these very bright galaxies at early times close to when the first galaxies formed. We still don't fully understand what they are and how they relate to the very numerous fainter galaxies," said another coauthor Garth Illingworth.
