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Astronomers Find Stars 7 Billion Light Years Away

Posted by Zonk on from the long-trip dept.

StArSkY writes "The Age has an article about an international team of astronomers that has discovered 14 galaxies, opening up a new era of 'galaxy hunting'. Using an infrared instrument in Chile (the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope ) — the researchers have been able to look through the glare of 20 Quasar's to identify previously obscured galaxies. 'Light from the newly found galaxies comes from the time the universe was about 6 billion years old, less than half its current age. By studying the light, the researchers have determined they are starburst galaxies that form lots of new stars -- the equivalent of 20 suns a year. Dr Murphy, who began working on the project while a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, described the results as a great leap forward. The findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. '"

13 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Expansionary galaxies? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I remember reading about star-making galaxies and how the stresses of gravity were used to "tear" space apart and create matter from the resulting energy differential. I wonder if that's similar to these starburst galaxies.

    Wouldn't it be nice to live longer than our measly 70-90 years and be able to watch the progression of our knowledge? Reading this kind of article always makes me regret that I was perhaps born this early in humanity's history.

    1. Re:Expansionary galaxies? by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Giving up mod points in this article to reply.

      I agree with you entirely.. I'm not scared of death, I'm scared of not knowing tomorrow. I'm sure glad I live in 2007 instead of 1807 but at the same time I don't have wish it was 3007. But for all we know humanity will get wiped out at the end of this decade and we're at the peak of human civilization at this moment in time.

      So I see where you're coming from, but we could be the final humans just as we're likely to be the first humans who meet aliens. :)

      --
      I like muppets.
    2. Re:Expansionary galaxies? by motank · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It sure is sad to think we won't know anything about the future or the past once we die. I guess i just expect that at some point, humanity will get to that point, where we know everything that's ever happened and have crazy cool gadgets i'll never get to use. i can't even imagine what they'll be! i just hope for the end of the world in my lifetime (hopefully like 50 or so years from now) so i can die knowing that at least i didn't miss out on any cool toys. plus, maybe aliens would end up finding MY bones and put me in a museum somewhere

      how crazy is it, though, that we can look so far into the past.. if only we could communicate with someone there we could ask em to tell us what was going on here 7 billion light years ago.

  2. In a distant galaxy, far far away.... by 9Nails · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmmm, is this far enough?

  3. Title is misleading by scarpa · · Score: 5, Informative

    The point of the article is not that the galaxies were 7 billion light years away, there have been galaxies observed over 10 billion light years from us.

    The real story is that these galaxies were in front of quasars and the infrared technique has now allowed observation of them.

    1. Re:Title is misleading by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real story is that these galaxies were in front of quasars and the infrared technique has now allowed observation of them.

      But quasars cover only a very small part of the sky. It's like moving a dead cockroach that's under the couch to reveal more dust, just like the rest of the dust on the couch. But its just regular dust.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  4. Defining Distance with Time by Nymz · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we are seeing them 7 billion light years away, and we are 4.5 billion light years old, that means they won't see us coming for another 2.5 billion years. Oh the poor bastards.

    1. Re:Defining Distance with Time by QuantumTheologian · · Score: 4, Informative

      You forget that the universe is expanding, and there's no such thing as universal simultaneity.

    2. Re:Defining Distance with Time by Nymz · · Score: 4, Funny

      They're actually hiding in front of quasars
      They sure are bold, I've never seen a hiding strategy quite like that before, we should name it the QuantumTheologian Defense in you honor.
  5. Let's Go There! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Funny

    We start tomorrow.

    I have only done this once before, so you will be responsible for bringing your own guns and supplies.

  6. Re:Bending of light by QuantumTheologian · · Score: 4, Informative
    The galaxies are in front of the quasars.

    The galaxies, which are about 7 billion light years from Earth, have until now been difficult to detect, because they lie in front of bright, distant objects known as quasars. What made them tough to see was that the quasars were so bright, that they drowned out the signal of these galaxies. The thing that's interesting about this finding is that they were able to use observations in the infrared range to differentiate the signal of the galaxies from the background of the quasars.
  7. Re:Universe ever expanding and recreating? by pedestrian+crossing · · Score: 4, Informative

    Has anyone ever considered the theory that the universe is not only ever expanding but also ever recreating in the middle? Also shouldn't we be able to tell where the middle of the universe is by obsering in which direction we can see the farthest?

    There is no "center" of the universe. You're probably confused by the popular image of the big bang that shows a point of light in the vast darkness that explodes into the universe.

    But there is no "vast darkness" outside the universe, by definition the universe is everything. There is no "outside the universe" (of course that makes it hard to do an animation of the big bang on TV).

    Every point in the universe is the "center". It's just that the "center" has smeared out across the whole universe as it has expanded from the big bang. On a large scale, everything is moving away from everything else.

    --
    A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  8. Re:Universe ever expanding and recreating? by kwikrick · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's an analogy I always like to clarify how the universe expands.

    Imagine that the universe is like the rubber surface of a balloon. Note that we only consider the actual space ON surface to be the universe. Now as the balloon balloon expands, the distance between any two points on the surface increases. But there is no center of the universe, i.e. no reference point ON the surface of the balloon that is special in any way. Of course, the surface of the balloon is a 2D space, and our universe is at least 3 dimensional, or perhaps 11 dimensional, according to some theories. And to describe our expanding balloon, we also needed to imagine an extra dimension... uh oh, sorry, now I'm making things complicated again. Anyway, I hope you get the picture.

    --
    assignment != equality != identity