Astronomers Find Stars 7 Billion Light Years Away

StArSkY writes "The Age has an article about an international team of astronomers that has discovered 14 galaxies, opening up a new era of 'galaxy hunting'. Using an infrared instrument in Chile (the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope ) — the researchers have been able to look through the glare of 20 Quasar's to identify previously obscured galaxies. 'Light from the newly found galaxies comes from the time the universe was about 6 billion years old, less than half its current age. By studying the light, the researchers have determined they are starburst galaxies that form lots of new stars -- the equivalent of 20 suns a year. Dr Murphy, who began working on the project while a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, described the results as a great leap forward. The findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. '"

Re:Expansionary galaxies?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't it be nice to live longer than our measly 70-90 years and be able to watch the progression of our knowledge?

personally, i think often about being able to outlive myself simply to know more about the universe as our technology progresses. its very saddening in a way.

Re:Expansionary galaxies?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Giving up mod points in this article to reply.

I agree with you entirely.. I'm not scared of death, I'm scared of not knowing tomorrow. I'm sure glad I live in 2007 instead of 1807 but at the same time I don't have wish it was 3007. But for all we know humanity will get wiped out at the end of this decade and we're at the peak of human civilization at this moment in time.

So I see where you're coming from, but we could be the final humans just as we're likely to be the first humans who meet aliens. :)

Bending of light

[Vulcann]

Isn't it conceivable that light coming from such a distance may not be traveling in a straight line? ESPECIALLY since there are 20 quasars between here and the place we assume the galaxies to be. Quasars would exert powerful gravitational pulls like black holes which theoretically should bend any light passing them. Is it possible these galaxies are not actually as far as 10 billion light year away after all?

Makes you wander...

[ls671]

If those stars still exist... If they do, they must have changed quite a bit before we received data from them...

Hello ! this is me emitting radio signals from a 7 billion light years away planet, come and join me for dinner, what do you expect to find when you arrive, even if you could get there instantly ? ;-))

I mean, given Einstein "curving of the universe", we could even be looking at ourselves 7 billion years ago ;-)

Re:Defining Distance with Time

[Anonymous Coward]

according to the good book, these galaxies cant be more than a few thousand light years away either.