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The Hubble Space Telescope picked up the most distant galaxy ever known to man.
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – It would seem that the 25-year-old space telescope still has a few aces up its sleeve. Recently, NASA has announced through Goddard the discovery of new galaxy, one that is pretty far away from our home. Hubble broke a new space record when a team of scientists detected the presence of the farthest galaxy ever observed.
Recently, NASA’s Goddard lab posted some stunning picture on Twitter depicting the most distant galaxy ever seen through a space telescope. The discovery of the new galaxy has been made after the researchers reviewed the data from Hubble’s GOODS program.
GOOD (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) contains data on thousands of galaxies and star systems. Among them, was one of particular interest to the scientific community. Dubbed GN-z11 and also called the farthest galaxy ever to be observed through a space telescope is approximately 13.4 million years old.
Even though GN-z11 is much small than the Milky Way, it has some fascinating features. According to NASA, despite that GN-z11 has only 1 percent the matter of our galaxy, it can produce stars at an incredible pace. In fact, the scientists have determined that the newly-discovered galaxy can produce stars 20 times faster than the Milky Way.
Moreover, the astronomers have also observed that despite its small dimensions, the Galaxy is very bright. GN-z11 is located between two known constellations, more specifically, Ursa Major and the Big Dipper.
Here are a couple of more facts about the newly-discovered galaxy. According to the data gathered by Hubble and the Spitzer telescopes, it would seem that the GN-z11 is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way. Also, based on the galaxy’s redshift (how much time it takes light to shift entirely to the red spectrum), the galaxy’s age has been estimated at 13.4 billion years old.
Unfortunately, NASA did not disclose other details about the galaxy or the scientists behind this momentous discovery. However, the space agency assured the public that a full scientific report will be released on the 8th of March.
Meanwhile, sit tight and enjoy the pictures posted by NASA on Twitter. Now, one more thing before heading out. When it comes to ascertaining the age of a star, NASA knows a thing or two. Analyzing a star’s redshift factor is one way of finding out how old a star is.
As we know, all celestial bodies give off a certain amount of radiation. Usually, we manage to pick up this radiation in the form of light. Now, light waves can be red, and, according to the scientists, the tone’s intensity can be used to determine the star’s location in space and its age.
Photo credits:wikipedia
