Hubble Sees Tribe of Baby Galaxies 13+ Billion Light Years Away 60
The Bad Astronomer writes "Using Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted seven galaxies that are all over 13 billion light years away... including one that appears to be a record breaker at a staggering 13.3+ billion light years distant. That one is seen as it was only 380 million years after the Big Bang. This observation reaches into the era of the young cosmos when stars were first forming, and allows astronomers to better understand what the Universe was like back then — a time we know very little about."
Waiting for JWST (Score:5, Interesting)
Hopefully the James Webb Space Telescope will not get way off track in budget and schedule again (cautiously optimistic), slated for 2018 launch currently but in any case this is another example of the more we find out, the more we realize we don't know.
Re:What kind of significant deductions... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just the fact that they exist can tell us a lot about conditions of the very early universe, there was a time when we though galaxies would take much longer than 300 million years to form. So, any theory about the conditions of the early universe needs to allow for large, complex features such as these galaxies to form. I would think spectroscopy would also be able to tell you the ratios of elements that exist in those early galaxies, though I wouldn't expect any surprises there it's still worth taking a look.
I'm no astronomer; if I can come up with a couple thoughts I'm sure someone in the field would be able to dream up a dozen more.
Is that distance right? The universe has expanded (Score:4, Interesting)
astronomers have spotted seven galaxies that are all over 13 billion light years away
Far be it for me to question the Bad Astronomer, but is that right? From the article:
Since the Universe is 13.7 billion years old, this means we are seeing this galaxy as it was only about 380 million years after the Big Bang.
The observable universe is over 90 billion l.y. across (45 billion l.y. radius) because space has expanded since the Big Bang. So aren't these galaxies a lot more than 13.7 billion light years away?
Interestingly the original spacetelescope.org article (second link in the summary) makes absolutely no mention of distance, only of elapsed time.
Re:Is that distance right? The universe has expand (Score:4, Interesting)
I dont know that much about it, but I suspect it has to do with comoving distance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comoving_distance [wikipedia.org]