Hubble Peers 13.2 Billion Years Back in Time to Capture the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Seen
37 replies, posted
[QUOTE]While the astronomical community anxiously awaits the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope keeps reminding us just how remarkable of an instrument it really is. Astronomers studying ultra-deep imagery from Hubble have located what could be the most distant galaxy ever glimpsed some 13.2 billion light years away—so far away that the galaxy appears as it did when the universe was just 480 million years old.
The discovery is notable not just because of its superlative nature, but because the universe was undergoing massive changes over a relatively short duration during this period. The infrared data collected by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 (WFC3) showed significant changes taking place in the periods spanning from about 480 million years after the Big Bang to about 650 million years after the Big Bang.
During this 170 million year period—a short time on the cosmic scale—the rate of star birth increased by ten times. Galaxies were populating and forming the basis of the universe we know today, fed by the gravitational influence of dark matter (we think) during these formative years.
This early galaxy appears as just a smear of starlight in the Hubble images and is more than 100 times smaller than the Milky Way. Calculations show that it’s redshift value—the extent to which space has stretched its light into larger wavelengths—is around 10.3, though precisely measuring redshifts this high is outside of Hubble’s capabilities (though after months of calculating and recalculating, astronomers are confident they are correct).
When Webb launches later this decade (it’s slated for launch in 2014), it will be the first space telescope that can accurately measure redshift values above 10, meaning not only will it be able to confirm Hubble’s new findings, but it should be able to find other young galaxies, even those very first ones that were thought to have formed 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang.[/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/hubble-peers-132-billion-years-back-time-capture-most-distant-galaxy-ever-seen[/url]
:science:
Is Webb gonna replace Hubble? :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Warriorx4;27684158]Is Webb gonna replace Hubble? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
I hope not..
How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Tell me about it
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Have you even, like, taken just a [I]general[/I] science class...?
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
why haven't you been perma'd yet
wheres the pic
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Light takes time to move around, so when you look a certain distance away you're seeing the light as it was when the light left, so in this case a body 13.2 billion light years away is seen as it was 13.2 billion years ago, sorry if this is a little vague.
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
They are not looking back in time, really. You know how when someone right next to you calls you, you hear them talking, then you hear it in the phone? The same thing happens with space. Because light can only travel so fast in a certain time period, look at a far enough away galaxy and you aren't seeing what it looks like now, you're seeing the light from thousands of years ago reaching you.
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Looking at this very screen you're looking less than a nanosecond into the past.
[QUOTE=Wayword;27684353]wheres the pic[/QUOTE]
The site, nor any of the links the article had, had any pictures on it, I'm sorry :saddowns:
I was disappointed too
Wasn't there a site with a big picture of the universe that the hubble took? I want to see that again but I can't remember what to look for.
[QUOTE=BigHeaded B;27684412]Wasn't there a site with a big picture of the universe that the hubble took? I want to see that again but I can't remember what to look for.[/QUOTE]
The Ultra Deep Field.
[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]
And it wasn't of the universe. It was of a very tiny patch of complete darkness in the night sky, taken over the course of 4 months.
[QUOTE=haloguy234;27684390]Looking at this very screen you're looking less than a nanosecond into the past.[/QUOTE]
Not really how light works at all. When looking at the screen the light moves fast enough that you always see it in present time.
In reality the internet time frame is limited to computer hardware rather than light.
[QUOTE=BigHeaded B;27684412]Wasn't there a site with a big picture of the universe that the hubble took? I want to see that again but I can't remember what to look for.[/QUOTE]
do you mean the radiation one of the entire universe or w/e? or do you mean the ultra deep field with tons of galaxies in a small portion of the universe
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Facepunch's resident creationist here
[QUOTE=Wayword;27684445]do you mean the radiation one of the entire universe or w/e? or do you mean the ultra deep field with tons of galaxies in a small portion of the universe[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure but the deep field thing isn't the one I remember.
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
Well...uh...come on
[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=haloguy234;27684390]Looking at this very screen you're looking less than a nanosecond into the past.[/QUOTE]
And don't forget how long it takes your brain to process the image and stuff
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27684501]Well...uh...come on
And don't forget how long it takes your brain to process the image and stuff[/QUOTE]
When you really think about it, it's amazing how slowly you're actually existing....
God, that took so long to realize
[QUOTE=DELL;27684437]Not really how light works at all. When looking at the screen the light moves fast enough that you always see it in present time.
In reality the internet time frame is limited to computer hardware rather than light.[/QUOTE]
Light moves at a constant speed. It's being emitted from my monitor at a speed of ~300 million meters per second and then hitting my eyes.
Stretch out one second to the tiniest units of time, and it takes a very very very very very small fraction of a nanosecond for that light to reach my eyes so they can build an image out of what they're receiving.
[QUOTE=DELL;27684437]Not really how light works at all. When looking at the screen the light moves fast enough that you always see it in present time.
In reality the internet time frame is limited to computer hardware rather than light.[/QUOTE]
Depends how far away your head is from the computer :v:
[QUOTE=Warriorx4;27684158]Is Webb gonna replace Hubble? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
The Hubble is ancient by operating satellite standards. It's already wearing a pair of glasses because it's optics are wrong.
That's a long damn time.
What we see of the sun is eight minutes old. Looking eight minutes back in time. (!)
If the sun were to explode right now, it would take 8 minutes for us to be aware of it.
Space is fucking amazing. Worth more way more funding.
[QUOTE=Contag;27684851]What we see of the sun is eight minutes old. Looking eight minutes back in time. (!)
If the sun were to explode right now, it would take 8 minutes for us to be aware of it.[/QUOTE]
The only reason that I remember that is because of Sunshine. :v:
[QUOTE=Gmod_Fan77;27684213]How can they look back in time with a telescope?
Damn it, space is fucking confusing.[/QUOTE]
lol my god...
[QUOTE=haloguy234;27684568]Light moves at a constant speed. It's being emitted from my monitor at a speed of ~300 million meters per second and then hitting my eyes.
Stretch out one second to the tiniest units of time, and it takes a very very very very very small fraction of a nanosecond for that light to reach my eyes so they can build an image out of what they're receiving.[/QUOTE]
Even so that's not changing the fact that present time is present time because we can't move fast enough to notice that small of a change in time.
