Astronomers from Arizona State University have grabbed an image of a
dim, distant galaxy, seeing it as it looked only 800 million years after
the birth of the Universe. Visible above as a green blob in the center
of a false-color image acquired with the Magellan Telescopes
at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the galaxy is seen in its
infancy and, at 13 billion light-years away, is one of the ten most
distant objects ever discovered.
The galaxy, designated LAEJ095950.99+021219.1, was detected by light emitted by ionized hydrogen using the Magellan Telescopes’ IMACS
(Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph) instrument, built at
the Carnegie Institute in Washington. In order to even find such a
remote object — whose existence had already been suspected — the team
had to use a special narrow-band filter on the IMACS instrument designed
to isolate specific wavelengths of light. Read more.
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