Astronomers discovered a distant supergiant called EGSZs8-1. The galaxy is 13 trillion light years away from Earth. This means that they can see into the past when the Universe was only 5% its current age. Scientists from the Netherlands, UK and USA carried out the study. The exceptionally-luminous galaxy’s exact distance from Earth was determined using the powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the W.M. Keck Observatory’s 10-metre telescope is located near Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This is the closest known galaxy. EGS-zs8-1 is one of the most bright and large objects in the Early Universe. It was identified by NASA’s Hubble space telescopes and Spitzer space telescopes based on the specific colours it exhibited. It took 13 trillion years for the light coming from EGS-zs8-1 to reach this point. Image: Yale. Distance is the equivalent of age. Astronomers consider distance to be both age and distance when discussing the Universe. It takes light from the Sun eight minutes to reach Earth. Light from distant stars, however can take many billions of years. When we see them we can really look into the Universe’s past. Pascal Oesch (a Yale Astronomer) was the lead author. He said that the paper, published in Astrophysical journal Letter, had already created more 15% than the current mass of our Milky Way. It took 670 millions of years to accomplish this feat. “The universe was very young at that time.” Astronomers used the distance measurement to find out that EGS-8-1 still forms stars at an accelerated rate. It is about eighty times faster then our Milky Way. Scientists have so far only been able to determine the distances between a few galaxies in the early Universe. Pieter van Dokkum is the second author and the Sol Goldman Family professor of Astronomy. He chairs Yale’s Department of Astronomy. The MOSFIRE instrument allows astronomers to simultaneously study multiple galaxies with ease. Over the next decade, one of the major goals will be to determine the properties and measure distances between galaxies. EGS-zs8-1 was discovered at an important time in the Universe’s history. The hydrogen that existed between galaxies was changing to an ionized form neutral. Rychard Bouwens, a co-author from the Leiden Observatory, in the Netherlands said that EGS-zs8-1 was the primary driver for the transition (called reionization).” The combined observations of Spitzer, Hubble, and Keck Observatory pose new questions. These observations confirm that there were massive galaxies in the early universe. However, these galaxies also had different physical properties than what we observe today. Spitzer photos now show that astronomers have evidence to support the theory that very early galaxies had unusual colours. This is due to the rapid formation of young, massive stars which interacted with primordial gas and dust. These observations highlight the amazing discoveries that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will make in 2018,, the authors said. Scientists will have more information about the gas properties of the telescope’s telescope and be able analyze EGS-zs8-1’s galaxy light using the Spitzer telescope. Garth Illingworth of the University of California Santa Cruz is co-author. He said that the telescope will allow scientists to analyze the galaxy light of EGS-zs8-1 and provide more detailed insights into its gas properties. Citation: “A Spectroscopic redshift measurement for a Luminouslyman Break Galaxy at z = 7″ 730 Using Keck/MOSFIRE,” P. A. Oesch, P. G. van Dokkum, G. D. Illingworth, R. J. Bouwens, I. Momcheva, B. Holden, G. W. Roberts-Borsani, R. Smit, M. Franx, I. Labbe, V. Gonzalez, and D. Magee. Astrophysical Journal Letters. Published May 5, DOI: 10. 1088/2041-8205/804/2/L30.
Galaxy 13 billion light-years away, unveiled by Astronomers
