Astronomers Find Galaxy Located 13.3 Billion Light Years From Earth
Posted on November 17, 2012
Astronomers have located a new candidate for the farthest away galaxy yet seen in the universe. The galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is 13.3 billion light years from Earth. To locate MACS0647-JD astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and the help of a massive galaxy cluster called MACS J0647+7015. The astronomers say the gravity of the massive cluster boosted the light from the far off galaxy and made images of it appear brighter. The astronomers say they would not have been able to find MACS0647-JD without the magnification effect from MACS J0647+7015.
Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. and leader of The Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), said in a release, "This cluster does what no manmade telescope can do. Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy."
The newly discovered galaxy is very young and only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way. It is less than 600 light-years wide.