WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2011 (Reuters) — U.S. and European researchers trying to peer back to the beginnings of the universe said on Wednesday they have spotted what they think is the most ancient galaxy ever seen -- 13.2 billion years old.
The aging Hubble Space Telescope collected light from the dim object, which would have formed when the universe was just 480 million years old, the researchers report in the journal Nature.
"We're peering into an era where big changes are afoot," said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz, one of the researchers working on the study.
"The rapid rate at which the star birth is changing tells us if we go a little further back in time we're going to see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the first galaxies were just starting to form."
Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles a second, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km) a year. Astronomers can use light-speed as a kind of time machine, and seeing light emitted from objects very far away shows them as they were in the past.
go science! i can't wait till scientist are able to explain how the universe started to exist, those guys explaining it with religion are messing with my head.
it was the best of times
it was the blurst of times
Mr. Satire
Joined: Jun 08 2010
Location: Termina Field
Posts: 1541
Posted:
Feb 02 2011 09:01 am
Yay science!
I can't wait either, Ear.
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Knyte
2010 SLF Tag Champ*
Title: Curator Of The VGM
Joined: Nov 01 2006
Location: Here I am.
Posts: 6749
Posted:
Feb 02 2011 10:53 am
This really puts a hole into the "Earth is only 6,000 years old" group, doesn't it?
