Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what they believe is the most distant, ancient object ever seen in the universe. Its light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder [video]. The age of the universe is 13.7 billion years. The dim object is a tiny, compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang, only four percent of the universe's current age. It is so small, more than one hundred similarly-sized mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. More from The Washington Post, The New York Times, CosmicLog, and Nature.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Hubble Space Telescope sets new record
Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what they believe is the most distant, ancient object ever seen in the universe. Its light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder [video]. The age of the universe is 13.7 billion years. The dim object is a tiny, compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang, only four percent of the universe's current age. It is so small, more than one hundred similarly-sized mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. More from The Washington Post, The New York Times, CosmicLog, and Nature.
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