The Hubble Telescope has revealed a galaxy which scientists believe is the oldest one detected so far. The scientists believe that the galaxy is over 13 billion years old and subsisted 480 million years after the Big Bang. The NASA team believes that this was the tenure when formation of the galaxy was overdriven during the early universe.
Hubble has recently installed a wide field camera that helped capture the image of the galaxy that was published in Nature Journal. Professor Richard at Leiden Observatory in Netherlands believes that we are seeing these ‘star cities’ that are expanding with respect to cosmic time. The research team has observed a quick growth over a very short span of time.
The sampled data by the research team has also revealed many features. The data reveals that there was only one galaxy that exited after the big bang for about 500 million years ago. Then after 150 million years, ten galaxies enter into the universe. The quantity had doubled after 100 million years. The research team believes that the process starts with small seeds that formed stars. The stars eventually created star clusters. These clusters in turn gave rise to baby galaxies. Finally these baby galaxies turned into large grandiose galaxies.
Professor Richard believes that this process is indeed astonishing and exciting. This complex physical process took place when there was no sign of mankind. He compares this galaxy to toddler. Toddler is a small galaxy like Milky Way but expanding at a very rapid rate. He believes that this comparison can help understand how fast the galaxies grow. Their growth measurement will help to evaluate cosmic time.
Dr. Olivia Johnson of Royal Greenwich Observatory at National Maritime Museum said that the enumerating the quick evolution of the universe will definitely reveal a hidden detail of the cosmos of early universe. She said that this will help understand the formation of the starts and in turn galaxies. She said that these are very big unanswered questions in astronomy and are yet to be revealed fully. She said this will be the turning point when we will look into the primitive universe for the first time.
Dr. Robert M(–foul word(s) removed–)ey of Royal Astronomical Society believes that this discovery of Hubble will help the astronomers to test their theories regarding the evolution of the universe. He said that images like this will help to fill the gaps in the findings.
The astronomers on the other hand are waiting anxiously for the NASA’s upcoming launch of the James Webb telescope in 2014. This telescope will help them to travel 200 million years back into cosmic time. This was the time when the galaxies were just starting to begin.