Bending Gravity, Researchers Capture Star-Birthing Region 10 Billion Light Years Away

[jayfish]

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/bending-gravity-researchers-capture-star-birthing-region-10-billion-light-years-away

Using a little astrophysical magic and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Telescope in northern Chile, astronomers at Durham University in England captured the best view yet of individual star nurseries in a galaxy a full 10 billion light-years from Earth. And all they had to do was bend a little light.
The star birth region above -- SMMJ2135-0102, for those of you keeping cosmic score -- is about 300 light-years across and contains concentrations of stars 100 times greater than similar regions in our own galaxy. Follow up snapshots taken with the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii further sharpened the view, revealing four star-forming factories in the galaxy.

This composite image shows the discovery of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102. Left: a view of galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 (centre), which is gravitationally lensing SMM J2135-0102. Top right: SMM J2135-0102 was first discovered in submillimetre-wavelength observations (shown in red) with the LABOCA camera on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope. Bottom right: follow-up observations with the Submillimeter Array (in red) revealed the clouds where stars are forming in the galaxy with great precision. Our view of the galaxy is magnified by gravitational lensing, which also produces a doubling of the image; the apparent eight regions in the Submillimeter Array observations actually represent four distinct regions of star formation in the galaxy.

Credit: ESO/APEX/M. Swinbank et al.; NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope & SMA

This artist’s impression of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102 shows large bright clouds a few hundred light-years in size, which are regions of active star formation, These “star factories” are similar in size to those in the Milky Way, but one hundred times more luminous, suggesting that star formation in the early life of these galaxies is a much more vigorous process than typically found in local galaxies. The overlaid contours show the structure of the galaxy as reconstructed from gravitationally lensed observations with the Submillimeter Array.

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/M. Swinbank et al.

10 Billion LY away? Amazing!

FSH

[brooklynite]

1. But, how did the light get here in just 6,000 years?

[Birthmark]

2. He created it "on the way" when he made everything.

Get with the program. :)