“We’ve taken a major step back in time, beyond what we’d ever expected to be able to do with Hubble. We see GN-z11 at a time when the universe was only three percent of its current age,” observed Pascal OeschAt the University of Geneva, the Galaxy Build-Up at Cosmic Dawn Team head spoke about the discovery of an 13.4 billion-year-old galaxy. It’s mind-boggling by comparison to think that Earth is only 4.5 billion years old.
Complex Life in a Galaxy Nearing the Dawn of Time
The discovery underscores Edwin Hubble’s observation that the history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.
Rocky planets, which might be a requirement for life, aren’t likely in a very young universe”
Astrophysicists answered questions about the possibility that complex life could exist in a galaxy close to the dawn of time. Brian ThomasWashburn University has responded to an email The Daily Galaxy: “First, my guess is that rocky planets, which might be a requirement for life, aren’t likely in a very young universe without a high abundance of heavy elements (due to not many generations of stars). Although not impossible, they are more rare than we currently see.
“Second,” Thomas continued, “I see that this galaxy appears to have a lot of star formation going on. Supernovae (SNe), are able to quickly follow bursts in star formation. Gamma-ray blasts (GRBs), which are also possible, may be more common than in the Milky Way. This is because there is an apparent link between low metallicity galaxies with a higher rate of GRBs. Both SNes as well as GRBs can be dangerous for life. I’m guessing the stellar density may be relatively high (like in the central part of the Milky Way), which makes it more likely that a planet would be subjected to large amounts of radiation from SNe and GRBs.
“Overall,” Thomas concluded, “I think the odds aren’t great for complex life in this environment.”
Echoing Thomas: Astrobiologer Manasvi LingamFlorida Institute of Technology, an affiliated of the Institute for Theory and Computation of Harvard University, sent an email to The Daily Galaxy. “Life, at the minimum, requires habitable conditions, solvent (e.g., water), energy sources, and bioessential elements. The lower number of stars in GNZ11 makes it unlikely that there will be many habitable planets.Moreover, the availability of heavier elements necessary for Earth-based biology (such as iron and molybdenum) is questionable because enough supernovae may not have occurred and seeded the planets with these elements.”
“Overall,” Lingam concluded, “I believe that the likelihood of life is rather low in that galaxy at that point in time, especially complex life, which calls for additional requirements (e.g., cellular differentiation). With that said, we should keep an open mind and not dismiss alternative possibilities altogether.”
Radio Galaxies from the Early Universe-Would Take Many Million Years to Cross at Speed Of Light
These results provide surprising clues to the origins of the early universe. “It’s amazing that a galaxy so massive existed only 200 million to 300 million years after the very first stars started to form. It takes really fast growth, producing stars at a huge rate, to have formed a galaxy that is a billion solar masses so soon,” explained investigator Garth IllingworthSanta Cruz University
Previously, the Universe’s most distant galaxy was known as EGS8p7, whose light was redshifted by an extra factor of 8.63 before it reached Earth, from 13.24 billion years ago: when the Universe was just 573 million years old, or only 4% of its current age.
Massive Redshift
The latest record holder’s light has been redshifted by an incredible factor of 11.1, which means that the light is even more old. It was emitted 13.40 Billion years ago when the Universe was just 407 million years old. This was closer to the Big Bang than any other galaxies have ever seen. To be able to see such a distant galaxy using the Hubble Space Telescope you need to not only be skilled but also lucky.
Astronomers measure large distances by determining the “redshift” of a galaxy. This is due to the expansion of our universe. Every distant object in the universe appears receded from us as its light travels through expanding space. The farther the galaxy, the greater the redshift.
By pushing NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, an international team of astronomers has shattered the cosmic distance record by measuring the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe. This amazingly bright infant galaxy, GNZ11, was seen at 13.40 billion years ago, 4070 million years after Big Bang. GN-z11 can be found in the direction of Ursa Major.
This animation shows galaxy GN-z11’s location. It is the most distant galaxy that has ever been seen. The video shows the constellation Ursa Major, and then the Big Dipper. The video then zooms in on the GOODS North galaxy field and ends with a Hubble photo of the young galaxies. GN-z11, which was 13.40 billion years old in the past, is shown here, only 4070 million years after its big bang.
Scientists from Yale University, Space Telescope Science Institute STScI and University of California were part of the discovery team.
Astronomers are still trying to find the first galaxies formed in the universe. The new Hubble observations take astronomers into a realm that was once thought to be only reachable with NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.
This measurement is strong evidence that many unusual and bright galaxies previously seen in Hubble photos are actually at extremely distant distances. Previously, the team had estimated GN-z11’s distance by determining its color through imaging with Hubble and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Now, for the first time for a galaxy at such an extreme distance, the team used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to precisely measure the distance to GN-z11 spectroscopically by splitting the light into its component colors.
“Our spectroscopic observations reveal the galaxy to be even farther away than we had originally thought, right at the distance limit of what Hubble can observe,” said Gabriel Brammer of STScI, second author of the study.
Are the Webb’s Images of Oldest Galaxies a Mirage or a Revolution? (The Galaxy Report).
Discovered: Ancestor of Milky Way
Astronomers have discovered an ancient cosmic artifact that is 11 billion light years from Earth. This is the oldest spiral galaxy they have ever seen. The newly discovered galaxy, known as A1689B11is an ancestor of modern spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way, which are defined by long tentacles of gas, dust and stars that wrap around the galaxy’s central bulge.
“Spiral galaxies are exceptionally rare in the early universe, and this discovery opens the door to investigating how galaxies transition from highly chaotic, turbulent discs to tranquil, thin discs like those of our own Milky Way galaxy,” said Renyue CenPrinceton University senior research astronomer,
Giant Anomaly of the Early Universe — Most Ancient Spiral Galaxy Discovered
Before astronomers could determine the distance of GN-z11 from the Sun, the redshift of the nearest galaxy measured spectroscopically was 8.68 (3.2 billion years back). Now, the team has confirmed that GNZ11 is located at a redshift 111, almost 200 million years closer the Big Bang.
“This is an extraordinary accomplishment for Hubble. It managed to beat all the previous distance records held for years by much larger ground-based telescopes,” said investigator Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University. “This new record will likely stand until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.”
The combination of Hubble’s and Spitzer’s imaging reveals that GN-z11 is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way and has just one percent of our galaxy’s mass in stars. The GNZ11 is still forming stars quickly and at a rate that’s 20 times faster than the current galaxy. This makes it possible for astronomers from faraway galaxies to perform detailed observations with Spitzer and Hubble.
These observations give a glimpse of what the James Webb Space Telescope can observe. “Hubble and Spitzer are already reaching into Webb territory,” Oesch said.
“This new discovery shows that the Webb telescope will surely find many such young galaxies reaching back to when the first galaxies were forming,” added Illingworth.
“The discovery of GN-z11 proves that galaxy build-up was well underway at ~400 million years after the Big Bang,” Pascal Oesch told The Daily Galaxy “We still do not know much about the nature of GN-z11, however. For example, it’s possible that some of its luminosity is due to an AGN. In any case, our discovery indicates that we should find numerous progenitors of GN-z11-like galaxies out to much higher redshifts with JWST in the near future, and we are all eagerly awaiting its launch and science operations.”
Avi Shporer with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research via Pascal Oesch, Manasvi Lingam, Brian Thomas, ESA/Hubble Information Centre NASA/Hubble
Image at the topArtist GN-z11 rendering
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Avi Shporer Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google ScholarAvi was previously a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
