One of the youngest and brightest galaxies in the universe

A dense galaxy of light yellow stars lies in a "spider web" system of distant galaxies appearing on a photo processed by the ACS camera (Advanced Camera for Surveys) of the Hubble space telescope.

Galaxy population Abell 1689

The gravitational force of billions of stars in this galaxy population is like a giant 'magnifying glass' , bending light and directing them to other distant galaxies behind it. The above light lines will create a circular arc around the galaxy population called Abell 1689. Astronomers use this phenomenon (also known as the 'gravitational lens' phenomenon) for detailed research. galaxies are far away from us.

However, there is a galaxy far away that does not appear in the photograph of all visible ACS rays (top right photo). Because its wavelength of light is stretched out like the wavelength of infrared due to the expansion of the universe and the naked eye we cannot see. Astronomers used Hubble's NICMOS (Near Infared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) technology and the Spitzer IRAC (Infared Array Camera) to observe this galaxy.

The galaxy is named A1689-zD1, which looks like a pale gray spot on the image of NICMOS (bottom right) and as white water droplets through the enlarged image of IRAC (3rd image on the left). New ' stars ' galaxy. This is one of the youngest galaxies ever discovered. Astronomers estimate the distance to get there is 12.8 billion light-years and Abell 1689 is only 2.2 billion light-years away.

A1689-zD1 was born in the 'dark age' of the universe, when stars and galaxies began to appear, after the Big Bang from 400,000 to 1 billion years. Scientists believe that A1689-zD1 is one of the galaxies that contributes to the elimination of that "dark age ."

Photos of ACS were taken in 2002, by NICMOS in 2005 and 2007, by IRAC in 2006.