Posted on 10/24/2013 3:14:56 PM PDT by NYer
From the Beeb:
An international team of astronomers has detected the most distant galaxy yet.
The galaxy is about 30 billion light-years away and is helping scientists shed light on the period that immediately followed the Big Bang.
It was found using the Hubble Space Telescope and its distance was then confirmed with the ground-based Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
Because it takes light so long to travel from the outer edge of the Universe to us, the galaxy appears as it was 13.1 billion years ago (its distance from Earth of 30 billion light-years is because the Universe is expanding).
Lead researcher Steven Finkelstein, from the University of Texas at Austin, US, said: “This is the most distant galaxy we’ve confirmed. We are seeing this galaxy as it was 700 million years after the Big Bang.”
The far-off galaxy goes by the catchy name of z8_GND_5296.
[...]
z8_GND_5296 is churning out stars at a remarkable rate, say astronomers
The system is small: about 1-2% the mass of the Milky Way and is rich in heavier elements.
But it has a surprising feature: it is turning gas and dust into new stars at a remarkable rate, churning them out hundreds of times faster than our own galaxy can.
It is the second far-flung galaxy known that has been found to have a high star-production rate.
Prof Finkelstein said: “One very interesting way to learn about the Universe is to study these outliers and that tells us something about what sort of physical processes are dominating galaxy formation and galaxy evolution.
[...]
Fr. Z is now 2 for 2 with astronomy postings. Just passing them along to you, ping.
Another one for your collection ... : - )
You know there must be something really good there.
ok believe what liberal government funded researchers at Austin say right? just like the global warming hoax. ok got it.
nothing of what they say makes sense so they invented “dark evergy” which has never been seen or detected to explain everything lol
ok believe what liberal government funded researchers at Austin say right? just like the global warming hoax. ok got it.
nothing of what they say makes sense so they invented “dark energy” which has never been seen or detected to explain everything lol
What are you doing posting this science voodoo here.
Don’t you know that us ignernt rednecks don’t know nuthin bout no science?
Now I’ll return to watching the Science Channel.
The system is small: about 1-2% the mass of the Milky Way and is rich in heavier elements.
But it has a surprising feature: it is turning gas and dust into new stars at a remarkable rate, churning them out hundreds of times faster than our own galaxy can.
It is the second far-flung galaxy known that has been found to have a high star-production rate.
They just found the stinking galaxy and they know all these details about it already?
Riiigghhtt.....
ping
So he going write next Star Wars movie
I hear they need new writer
Cool. 700 gazillion billion trillion light years ahead of ObamaCare,, when the Universe knew best. Not the liberal university.:-)
This galaxy is churning out thousands of new stars, eh? That’s far far far too damned productive. Obama will sign it up for the dole and a free phone and free rent and free utilities and it will stop being productive right away. if not , Obama will give it obamacare and his death squad will put an end to this troublesome little galaxy forthwith. Productivity is Verboten, verstaienzeh?
I remember an interesting science fiction short story, about an experimental spaceship that would go faster than the speed of light, like a tachyon. For this reason, the story had to give some tachyon theory.
Normally, to accelerate to the speed of light takes an immense amount of energy. As soon as you cross the speed of light to tachyon space, you still have this vast amount of energy, to get the *slowest* possible tachyon speed. Since you can’t get more energy, to *speed up* in tachyon space you have to give up energy(!) So eventually, the very fastest tachyons have almost no energy of momentum left.
In any event, this spaceship would not accelerate to the speed of light, but with some gizmo, would translate to its energetic equivalent in tachyon space, with the same level of energy.
They figured that they had better be cautious, so would just accelerate for a tiny fraction of a second when they made the jump to tachyon space, and then immediately jump back to normal, sub-light speed space.
Blip! But when they looked out the window all they saw was blackness. They fussed over this a while before they figured out they had traveled so far that they were more than 15 billion light years away from the universe, so its light hadn’t reached that empty space yet.
Using some very careful measurements, they turned their ship around exactly 180 degrees, not an easy trick with no reference points. Then they used twice as much acceleration before going into and coming out of tachyon space.
Luck! They could now see a tiny dot of light in their “rear view mirror”, which was the universe.
The story concluded that it might be some time before they get home.
I enjoy good theoretical science.
The Science Channel has a great show narrated by Morgan Freeman (Yeah I know) covering various lines of theoretical astrophysical thinking.
But will astronauts who are lactose intolerant be able to visit the milky way or explore it?
A mere engineer designed the waste disposal system....
or as the laymen put it, pooping in space.
Thanks for the “Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away” ping. I guess now we know we can see light 17 billion light years away.
Thanks for the ping!
Interesting story there. I’d like to find and read it. I often wonder if there is like a “wall” at the end of the Universe where say if you took a car and went into it at 100 MPH, what would happen? There is so much we do not know. I remember in the 1990’s when Art Bell had a guest where his theory was that quasars could be “small big bangs” that are adding to our universe and adding to it.
17 billion years is older than the proposed age of the universe. Something doesn’t fit, eh?
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