Slashdot Mirror


Hubble Shatters the Cosmic Distance Record

An anonymous reader writes: One of the holy grails of cosmology is to measure, directly, exactly when the first stars and galaxies formed in our Universe. The Hubble Space Telescope has been pushing the distance record farther and farther back, with its measurements typically confirmed by ground-based, spectroscopic follow-ups. This time, however, the new record-holder was so distant that confirmation needed to be done from space: by Hubble itself. The result? A galaxy at a redshift of z=11.1, from when the Universe was just 400 million years old, or a mere 3% of its current age. This is a record that will likely stand until the James Webb Space Telescope launches, as it took a combination of incredible work and incredible luck to find a galaxy this far back with our current technology.

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And nobody by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone's been inhaling something...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  2. Re:STOP! Pushing Forbes for Science articles!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    My left foot.

  3. Re:STOP! Pushing Forbes for Science articles!!! by Harold+Halloway · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, "An anonymous reader writes" my left foot.

    No, Christy Brown wrote 'My Left Foot.'