Being able to see and thus hopefully understand the early Universe is important to understanding how it was formed. When we observe an object that is 13 billion light years away, we are essentially observing it as it was 13 billion years ago, when the Universe was young. Scientists have estimated the age of the Universe to be 13.73 billion years old (with an uncertainty of about 120 million years). Why Are These Distances Important To Astronomers? Wright's Javascript cosmology calculator at:įor more information on Hubble's Law, please read the section on finding distances to the Nearest Superclusters. This can be calculated from the amount of normal and dark matter and of dark energy. Here, we have to know the history of how rapidly the universe was expanding at each moment in time. How do We Calculate Distances of This Magnitude?Īt these distances, objects' redshifts are used, with and extension of Hubble's Law to the distant Universe. When 13 billion light years is translated into kilometers, there are a staggering number of zeros - it comes out to approximately 123,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km.Īs time progresses, so will our ability to see futher and further away - giving us insight on the very beginnings of the Universe's existence! However, a powerful new generation of telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope, will be needed to confirm the suspected distances of these objects. Some of the most newly detected objects may be over 13 billion light years away, as derived from a standard model of the Universe. (Note: JWST will be able to see these first galaxies without the aid of gravitational lensing gravitational lensing might allow us to see them better, but would not necessarily let us see further back in time.) Bottom: Simulation of what a JWST Deep Field might look like. ( Phil Plait has a good column about this discovery too.) Their discovery, which you can read more about in the NASA feature is exciting because it might give us an idea of how abundant galaxies were close to the era when astronomers think galaxies first started forming. The extreme distance of these newly discovered galaxies means their light has been traveling to us for more than 13 billion years, from a time when the Universe was less than 4% of its current age. Redshift means that light that is emitted as ultraviolet or visible light is shifted more and more to redder wavelengths. Why infrared? Because the Universe is expanding therefore the farther back we look, the faster objects are moving away from us, which shifts their light towards the red. This survey, called UDF12, used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to peer deeper into space in near- infrared light than any previous Hubble observation. The results are from survey of the same patch of sky known as the Ultra Deep Field (UDF). In December of 2012, astronomers announced a Hubble Space Telescope discovery of seven primitive galaxies located over 13 billion light years away from us. EGS8p7 at more than 13.2 billion light years away, and EGS-zs8-1 at 13.1 billion light years away. Update 02/03/16: Here are the newest candidates (as of September and May 2015 respectively) for farthest galaxy yet detected. For UDF Location and Age of the Universe graphics: NASA What is the Farthest Known Object From Earth?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |