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Scientists Discover Early-Universe Galaxy 13 Billion Light Years Away

DAVIS (CBS SF) -- A newly discovered galaxy, far, far away is giving astronomers a glimpse into the earliest formations of stars and matter in our universe.

Using gravitational lensing and a special telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, physicists detected a faint galaxy 13 billion light years away from Earth. Its stellar mass is barely a fraction of our Milky Way galaxy. In other words, it is still in the reionization epoch -- the end of the cosmic dark ages, "when the first stars became visible."

Scientists published their findings in the May 19 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

This newly discovered world was hidden behind a large galaxy cluster known as MACS J2129.4−0741. University of California Davis researcher and lead author Kuang-Han Huang says the distant galaxy's faint light would not have been discernible without MACS J2129.4−0741, which served as a gravitational lens to magnify and create three images of the tiny galaxy. Astronomers have confirmed the three images are of the same object, because they show the same spectra.

Scientists believe this small, 13 billion-year-old galaxy will help us to better understand a period of the early universe after the Big Bang, when gravity began to form stars from clouds of gas.

"This galaxy is exciting because the team infers a very low stellar mass, or only 1 percent of 1 percent of the Milky Way galaxy," says Marc Kassis, staff astronomer at the Keck Observatory in a statement. "It's a very, very small galaxy and at such a great distance, it's a clue in answering one of the fundamental questions astronomy is trying to understand: What is causing the hydrogen gas at the very beginning of the universe to go from neutral to ionized about 13 billion years ago? That's when stars turned on and matter became more complex."

Davis professor and co-team leader Marusa Bradac believes astronomers have better tools than ever before to explore the origins of our universe.

"Keck Observatory's telescopes are simply the best in the world for this work," says Bradac. "Their power, paired with the gravitational force of a massive cluster of galaxies, allows us to truly see where no human has seen before."


CBSSF.com writer, producer Jan Mabry is also executive producer and host of The Bronze Report. She lives in Northern California. Follow her on Twitter @janmabr.

 

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