Space exploration: Hubble Telescope captures oldest galaxy ever seen

Examiner.com: Space exploration: Hubble Telescope captures oldest galaxy ever seen

US and Europe Researchers who seek discovering the universe origin said Wednesday they found what they believe is the oldest galaxy ever, which would have 13,200 million years. The old Hubble Space Telescope captured an object’s glimpse, which would have formed when the universe had only 480 million years, researchers wrote in “Nature” journal.

"We are carefully watching an era where big changes are under way," said Garth Illingworth at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a researcher working on the study. "The high speed at which the rising star changes, they tell us that if we go further back in time, we will see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the early galaxies began forming," he added.

Light travels at a speed of 186 000 miles per second or about six-trillion miles per year. Astronomers can use the speed of light as a time reference frame, and see light being emitted from far distant objects showing the way they were in the past. In this case, the light began to travel the galaxy 13,200 million years ago, just after the Big Bang that created the universe.

The measured distance uses redshift, a “Doppler” light effect. Just as a train whistle seems changing its pitch as it approaches, light also changes color when traveling through various medium densities. This galaxy registers a redshift ten, making it the oldest ever. The record was set last October by a galaxy with a redshift 8.5, 200 million years after the stars began forming at faster pace.

Nevertheless, researchers wrote, “Only when the James Webb Space Telescope launches later, it will reveal the early galaxy development stages with redshifts between 10 and 15." With the Hubble telescope, launched during 1990, you can see these old galaxies glimmers because it orbits outside the Earth's atmosphere. The James Webb. a more potent telescope, is scheduled for launching into space by 2015. Then, scientists expect to get a better glimpse of the universe and its galaxies.