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Caltech Astronomers Discover Oldest Galaxy Yet Known

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-don't-look-a-day-over-10-billion dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Caltech astronomers have discovered a galaxy believed to be the oldest and farthest ever observed. They estimate it to be 13.2 billion years old. The universe itself is about 13.8 billion years old. The discovery may lead to a revision of theories of age and evolution of the early universe. The team published their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

2 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Billion, million, whatever by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They estimate it to be 13.2 billion years old, making it only about 600,000 years younger than the Big Bang.

    Only out by a factor of 1000. Not bad.

    I don't suppose anyone will actually bother editing it to stop Slashdot looking like an idiot.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  2. not 13.2 billion years old by John_Sauter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What we are seeing is not a galaxy that is 13.2 billion years old. Rather, we are seeing a galaxy as it existed 13.2 billion years ago. It is actually quite young, for a galaxy.