Hubble telescope detects the oldest galaxy

(Hubtv) - The Hubble telescope has recently discovered primitive galaxies formed during the early days of the universe, including the oldest galaxy ever discovered.

>>>New candidate for the "oldest galaxy" throne

The discovery, released Wednesday, December 12, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine when and how the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang.

"The universe's dawn is not an impressive and solitary event ," astronomer Richard Ellis said. 'Instead, galaxies seem to have formed over hundreds of millions of years'.

The oldest galaxy

Ellis led a research team using the Hubble telescope to observe a small part of the sky for hundreds of hours. The dot images of faint galaxies consisting of a galaxy have been identified by the researcher as about 380 million years after the beginning of the universe - closest to the time of the Big Bang observed. .

The universe is about 13.7 billion years old, so newly discovered galaxies were present when the universe was 4% of its current age. Six other galaxies have a light age of about 380 million and 600 million years after the Big Bang.

"The images look like the first ultrasound of an infant , " said Abraham Loeb, an expert in the early universe at Harvard University. "These are the building blocks of the galaxy we have today."

"These first galaxies are thousands of times denser than the current galaxy and are closer together ," Ellis said. 'But they are also less bright than the later galaxies'.

The team used a set of four filters to analyze near-infrared wavelengths captured by Hubble's camera, and estimate the distance of galaxies to Earth by studying their colors. . The researchers say they have pushed the Hubble telescope's vision farthest and further observations may have to wait for the James Webb Space Telescope telescope to arrive at the end of the decade.

The researchers also said Hubble's observations will set the stage for Webb's subsequent observations.