The Hubble Telescope recently has spotted a galaxy that scientists investigating the origin of the universe believe it is the oldest galaxy every discovered. Scientists gathering information on this matter say that the galaxy was created only 13,200 million years ago, when the universe was just 438 million years old.
"The high speed at which the rising star changes, they tell us that if we go further back in time, we will see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the early galaxies began forming," he said.
Using the speed of light as a time reference frame, astronomers can determine how distant objects were in the past from the light they emit, so the speed of the light the galaxy emits began to travel 13,200 million years ago, just after the Big Bang occurred and created the universe. They used redshift, a Doppler light effect, to measure the distance of the galaxy; "just as a train whistle seems changing its pitch as it approaches, light also changes color when traveling through various medium densities." This galaxy has a redshift 10, which is the highest ever recorded, making the galaxy the oldest.
“Only when the James Webb Space Telescope launches later, it will reveal the early galaxy development stages with redshifts between 10 and 15."
Since the Hubble Telescope is old, being launched in the 1990's, and it outside the Earth's atmosphere, you can see only the glimmer of the galaxies, but the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to be launched in the year 2015 and scientists expect to get a better look at the universe.
What interested me about this article was the fact that it is about my favorite science topic, astronomy, and it is one that fascinates me. The Hubble Telescope is an invention that has contributed to the world of astronomy so much, but that is getting old and antiquated to make investigations. As technology develops we are able to look at objects further away in a more detailed manner and these developments allow us to uncover more and more about the universe and its origins. I think that it is very interesting that this galaxy was created right after the Big Bang and that it is the oldest that has yet been recorded. Before this one was found, the record for the oldest galaxy was set by another one that had redshift 8.5, when this one has redshift 10. This is a step that got us further into discovering more about the universe's origin.
