Hubble finds oldest object in universe: 13.2B yrs old

William Atkins
Friday, 28 January 2011 01:23

Science - Space

NASA announced (1/26/2011) that the Hubble Space Telescope has viewed the light coming from a compact galaxy that existed only 480 million years after the Big Bang. It is the oldest known object to be found in the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope, using its Wide Field Camera 3, observed the light coming from a compact galaxy (about one-hundredth the size of our Milky Way galaxy).

The tiny galaxy, which has yet to form into a definite shape, is made up of hot blue stars (which can't be individually seen). Astronomers say it began to exist about 13.2 billion years ago.

The astronomers involved with this discovery state that the stars making up this galaxy probably existed over 100 to 200 million years before the galaxy formed.

With the age of the universe approximately 13.75 billion years (plus or minus 170 million years) old, as currently accepted by astronomers, this object existed, according to NASA, about 480 million years after the Big Bang, the event that is theorized to have created our universe.

The previous record-holder for a galaxy in existence was about 650 million years after the Big Bang.

The January 26, 2011 NASA article NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe states, 'The tiny, dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang. More than 100 such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. The new research offers surprising evidence that the rate of star birth in the early universe grew dramatically, increasing by about a factor of 10 from 480 million years to 650 million years after the big bang.'

Page two continues.