Using the method of gravitational lensing to detect remote objects, scientists from the American University of John Hopkins in Baltimore managed to register light from the oldest galaxy from the known today.
In such a difficult matter as the search for ancient cosmic objects, the scientists were helped by the data from the telescopes of Hubble and Spitzer, as well as the Galactic accumulation of Macs J1149+2223, located in the constellation Lion. Scientists have analyzed the degree of curvature of space in the nearest environs of this galactic group and realized that the accumulation is a powerful gravitational lens that increases the light passing through it by 15 times.
Using the Macs J1149+2223 object to study the surroundings, astrophysicists found a galaxy that radiating light with extremely unusual characteristics: in the visible part of the spectrum there is a continuous dark area (lime cliff), which is characteristic exclusively for objects removed from us at a distance of 13.1 billion lightyears.
. Thanks to this, the entire visible or part of the infrared spectrum of the most distant galaxies will be dark, which is the cliff. This one helps scientists distinguish distant galaxies from relatively close stellar megacities.
Researchers indicate that the limit of Liman in the spectrum of the new Galaxy, called the MACS 1149-JD, went beyond the boundaries of the optical part of the spectrum and is in the infrared range. The value of red displacement for the object was 9.6.
According to astronomers, we see this galaxy in the state in which it existed over 13.1 billion years ago, only 490 million years after the big explosion. In its size, the galaxy was inferior to the Milky Way of about 20 thousand. once. The authors of the article believe that before the discovery of the Galaxy, it lasted about 200 million years. This is indicated by the lines of heavy elements in the spectrum of this star cluster, which appear only at the last stages of the life of stars. This allows us to say that the MACS 1149-JD originated 300 million years after the Big Bang, which makes it the earliest galaxy, known to humanity.
Source:
- NASA.GOV