Scientists pinpoint the farthest galaxy

[brooklynite]

Source: MSNBC

Astronomers have confirmed that an incredibly faint galaxy in the constellation Fornax is the most distant known object in the universe, shining more than 13 billion light-years away and reflecting an era when stars were just beginning to emerge from a cosmic fog.

The galaxy, known as UDFy-38135539, is one of several super-distant objects picked out from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the most sensitive snapshot ever taken of deep space. In time, astronomers may well spot objects that are even farther away, but this particular galaxy was the first of its type to go through the arduous process of having its measurements checked.

In fact, the astronomers behind the observations say they couldn't have seen UDFy-38135539 unless there were other, fainter galaxies nearby to help clear out the space around it. "Without this additional help, the light from the galaxy, no matter how brilliant, would have been trapped in the surrounding hydrogen fog, and we would not have been able to detect it," Durham University's Mark Swinbank said in a news release from the European Southern Observatory.

Read more: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/20/5322427-scientists-pinpoint-the-farthest-galaxy

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...and the light got here in only 6,000 years? Amazing.

[thereismore]

1. Haha. That is just one faint fairy light that's actually really really close.

:hide:

[Uncle Joe]

2. Fascinatingly beautiful.

Thanks for the thread, brooklynite.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Seems like it deserves a better name than "UDFy-38135539."

Nominations?

[Ian David]

8. Far, Far Away. n/t

[HopeHoops]

10. Where CURIOUSLY, everyone except for Chewbacca and Guito (or whatever his name was) speaks English.

Well, the Jawa's don't either, but they were just kids in burlap sacks.

[Peace Patriot]

16. Good, but I'd add a "far." How about "ffFaway"? ("Far, far, FAR away.")

It has a kind of very distant alien sound. (fuff, fuff, FUFF away.) (or: eff, eff, EFF away). (a tone up on the capital F). And "ffFaway," for short, looks definitely weirdly distant and strange.

Another naming method might be to convert the numbers in its current name to letters of the alphabet (um, English alphabet.) (They'll just have to deal with it.)

I'll be working on this.

[Peace Patriot]

18. I get "You Defy Chaceecdi."

On a straight ABC/1,2,3 code, with the given first letters ("UDFy") spelled out.

UDFy = "You Defy..."

38135539 = chaceecdi

Sounds like a threat from some distant VERY POWERFUL GOD.

Have we defied Chaceecdi by naming this galaxy with mere numbers? Yikes! By taking its picture? By its picture being such a miniscule-seeming bit of gray dust--no fabulous sprays of golden stars, no whirligig swirls, no supernova explosions, no glory? Just looks like nothing--a teeny bug on your screen (in the actual Hubble photo).

Pronounced: You Defy Cha-seek-die.

For those who may wish to rectify this mistake.

[Lars77]

14. Frigginlongwayawayistan nt

[villager]

4. Indeed, a mere "6,000 light years" away!

Beautiful picture, btw...

[kimmerspixelated]

My God, It's Full Of Stars!

Seriously, this is breathtakingly beautiful. I'd love to have a wall size print of that.

[MilesColtrane]

5. How do we know that we're not looking at our own galaxy 13 billion years ago?

[kimmerspixelated]

7. We don't.

And furthermore, any aliens that eventually come to visit(or make their prescence known) might also be us from a different time. Fractal Time!!!!! It boggles.

[Mr. Sparkle]

6. I love news stories like this, it really opens up the imagination about our universe. n/t

[Winterblues]

9. I didn't think the universe was 13 billion years old.

:shrug: If we are seeing light that began over thirteen billion years ago something is a bit off.

[HopeHoops]

11. It's only six thousand years old, you know, when God created it and made Adam and Eve.

Get with the PROGRAM already.

[Ian David]

12. There was an early period of hyper-expansion at the beginning that went faster than light.

Inflation (cosmology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation or just inflation is the theorized extremely rapid exponential expansion of the early universe by a factor of at least 1078 in volume, driven by a negative-pressure vacuum energy density.<1> The inflationary epoch comprises the first part of the electroweak epoch following the grand unification epoch. It lasted from 10−36 seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds. Following the inflationary period, the universe continues to expand.

The term "inflation" is also used to refer to the hypothesis that inflation occurred, to the theory of inflation, or to the inflationary epoch. The inflationary hypothesis was proposed in the 1970s by Belarusian scientist Zeldovich, and independently proposed in 1980 by American physicist Alan Guth, who named it "inflation".<2>

As a direct consequence of this expansion, all of the observable universe originated in a small causally connected region. Inflation answers the classic conundrum of the Big Bang cosmology: why does the universe appear flat, homogeneous and isotropic in accordance with the cosmological principle when one would expect, on the basis of the physics of the Big Bang, a highly curved, heterogeneous universe? Inflation also explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the universe (see galaxy formation and evolution and structure formation).<3>

While the detailed particle physics mechanism responsible for inflation is not known, the basic picture makes a number of predictions that have been confirmed by observation. Inflation is thus now considered part of the standard hot Big Bang cosmology. The hypothetical particle or field thought to be responsible for inflation is called the inflaton.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_%28cosmology%29

[Hosnon]

22. The expansion of space doesn't have to follow the cosmic speed limit. nt.

[geek tragedy]

13. Is the 6,000 years comment snark? nt

[rug]

15. So far.

[marasinghe]

17. thanks for posting.

need all the 13-bill light years away from this pathetic planet we can get.
wondrous pic too.

[DaveJ]

19. If that pic is of the farthest galaxy

Then what are those behind it? Or are they really in front? Just wondering.

[Posteritatis]

20. It's an artist's impression typical of modern crappy science reporting. (nt)

[DaveJ]

21. Ah, I should have guessed. Thanks!

[jennied]

23. It really puts our silly quarrels into perspective.