The galaxy, EGS-zs8-1, was originally identified based on its particular colours in images from Hubble and Spitzer and is one of the brightest and most massive objects in the early universe. Read more
Astronomers set a new distance record for galaxies
An international team of astronomers led by UC Santa Cruz and Yale University has pushed back the cosmic frontier of galaxy exploration to a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its present age. The team discovered an exceptionally luminous galaxy more than 13 billion light years from Earth and determined its exact distance using the powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the Keck I 10-meter telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Read more
In a synergy between the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, and the giant W. M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have set a new distance record to the farthest redshift-confirmed galaxy. It is so far away the light we receive left the galaxy over 13 billion years ago, and it is just arriving now. Hubble found the galaxy in deep-sky surveys, and Keck's 10-meter-diameter segmented mirror is powerful enough to collect a spectrum from the unusually bright galaxy. The new observations underline the very exciting discoveries that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will enable when it is launched in 2018. Read more