Farthest Known Galaxy in the Universe Discovered

A new celestial wonder has stolen the title of most distant object ever seen in the universe, astronomers report.

The new record holder is the galaxy MACS0647-JD, which is about 13.3 billion light-years away. The universe itself is only 13.7 billion years old, so this galaxy's light has been traveling toward us for almost the whole history of space and time.

Astronomers spotted the object using NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, with the aid of a naturally occurring cosmic zoom lens as well. This lens is a huge cluster of galaxies whose collective gravity warps space-time, producing what's called a gravitational lens. As the distant galaxy's light traveled through this lens on its way to Earth, it was magnified.

"This cluster does what no manmade telescope can do," Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., said in a statement unveiling the discovery today (Nov. 15). "Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy." Postman leads the Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), which performed the study.

The distant galaxy is just a tiny blob, and is much smaller than our own Milky Way, researchers said. The object is very young, and it also dates from an epoch when the universe itself was still a baby, just 420 million years old, or 3 percent of its present age. [The Universe: Big Bang to...Easy Steps]

full story HERE

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

What does age have 2 do with distance?

Graycap23 said:

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

What does age have 2 do with distance?

I think that I just answered my own question...

This object was at a certain point 13.3 billion years ago because that's how long the light has been traveling to the point where we are now...so we are seeing into the past.

I dunno...makes my head spin.

I think the object is currently 13.7b yrs old, but what we are seeing is it when it was 400,000m yrs old.

I think.

[Edited 11/16/12 10:10am]

morningsong said:

I think the object is currently 13.7b yrs old, but what we are seeing is it when it was 400,000m yrs old.

I think.

[Edited 11/16/12 10:10am]

That could be....I think.

Graycap23 said:

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

What does age have 2 do with distance?

why is age more than a number?

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

I think I get your question. Shouldn't this light have already gotten to us, when the universe was much smaller then?

I suppose maybe because the nothing in the universe is fixed, then say the earth and this object are moving quickly in opposite directions, then it will take longer than the light year distance to reach us.

Two trains are a mile apart, but moving away from each other at 60 miles per hour. How fast would you have to throw a baseball to hit the other train and how long would it take, etc...now I am confused too!

Here's a question/answer that clarifies my point--the "edges" of the universe were expanding faster than the speed of light, and apparently the more distant objects are from each other, the more quickly they can move apart.

http://curious.astro.corn...number=387

[Edited 11/16/12 11:35am]

NDRU said:

Here's a question/answer that clarifies my point--the "edges" of the universe were expanding faster than the speed of light, and apparently the more distant objects are from each other, the more quickly they can move apart.

http://curious.astro.corn...number=387

[Edited 11/16/12 11:35am]

I am gonna take a hit before I click on that link.

Isn't it saying that the galaxy was formed 400 milion years after the big bang not that we are seeing it as it was 400m years ago or did I misundertsand your question? Either way you are right it's a head buster for sure.

"According to the theory of inflation, the Universe grew by a factor of 10 to the sixtieth power in less than 10 to the negative thirty seconds"

Ahhhhhhh, now I get it.

Layman's Translation, it got fucking big and it got fucking big fucking quickly.

^

That's how it was made in only 7 days!

NDRU said:

That's how it was made in only 7 days!

Perhaps if it would have been 7 rather than slacking off after 6 days he could have fixed all the broken bits. Reminds me of the bloke that tiled my roof and kept slacking off. Now it leaks.

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

morningsong said:

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

If you translate into Klingon, I might understand it better.

PurpleJedi said:

morningsong said:

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

If you translate into Klingon, I might understand it better.

'oH 'oH DuHHa' Daq [understand]

http://www.mrklingon.org/

NDRU said:

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

There are 5 different ways to view the object with regards to age.

But, essentially, we can only see the object as it was 13.3 billion years ago when it was 400 million years old.

And, it is probably somewhere around 70 billion light years away. This is because space-time has been expanding the entire time, and thus the distance of the object currently is far greater than the distance of time the light took to get to us.

The circumference of the visible Universe is about 150ish billion light years in diameter, and the furthers known objects are 70ish billion light years away. However, the light from those objects are only around 13 billion years old. So essentially, light has been travelling in a straight line on a fabric that keeps expanding.

imago said:

PurpleJedi said:

Now...if someone who's good in science & math can help me out with this...

I don't quite grasp the concept.

This object is allegedly almost as old as the universe itself. The images we are seeing took 13.3 BILLION years to reach earth.

But the object itself, as we see it, is only 400 million years old. I fact, by now, this object as we see it probably has already changed shaped/composition & certainly location since everything is moving.

So who's been travelling faster than the speed of light to be situated so far in such a short span of time (400 million years old - 13.3 billion light years away)???

Everything originated from a single point simultaneously - yet within 400 million years' time, this object and the spot where we are at now are 13.3 billion light years apart???

Help me out here.

There are 5 different ways to view the object with regards to age.

But, essentially, we can only see the object as it was 13.3 billion years ago when it was 400 million years old.

And, it is probably somewhere around 70 billion light years away. This is because space-time has been expanding the entire time, and thus the distance of the object currently is far greater than the distance of time the light took to get to us.

The circumference of the visible Universe is about 150ish billion light years in diameter, and the furthers known objects are 70ish billion light years away. However, the light from those objects are only around 13 billion years old. So essentially, light has been travelling in a straight line on a fabric that keeps expanding.

yes, but they're claiming it is from when the universe was 400 million years old, not the object

NDRU said:

imago said:

There are 5 different ways to view the object with regards to age.

But, essentially, we can only see the object as it was 13.3 billion years ago when it was 400 million years old.

And, it is probably somewhere around 70 billion light years away. This is because space-time has been expanding the entire time, and thus the distance of the object currently is far greater than the distance of time the light took to get to us.

The circumference of the visible Universe is about 150ish billion light years in diameter, and the furthers known objects are 70ish billion light years away. However, the light from those objects are only around 13 billion years old. So essentially, light has been travelling in a straight line on a fabric that keeps expanding.

yes, but they're claiming it is from when the universe was 400 million years old, not the object

ok, so the object is somewhere younger than 420 million years old. But the point is that this places it at 13.3 billion light years away time-wise, but the real distance is at this point 70 billion light years away, compounded by the fact that the object probably isn't there anymore, or has been absorbed by larger galaxies.

That's why there are multiple ways of discribing what's out there.

imago said:

NDRU said:

yes, but they're claiming it is from when the universe was 400 million years old, not the object

ok, so the object is somewhere younger than 420 million years old. But the point is that this places it at 13.3 billion light years away time-wise, but the real distance is at this point 70 billion light years away, compounded by the fact that the object probably isn't there anymore, or has been absorbed by larger galaxies.

That's why there are multiple ways of discribing what's out there.

that part I can agree with, sweetie

morningsong said:

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

I have a fetish for intelligent people...

morningsong said:

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

That equation makes me nervous.

I hate physics and astronomy. I'm getting a headache just reading this thread

NDRU said:

imago said:

ok, so the object is somewhere younger than 420 million years old. But the point is that this places it at 13.3 billion light years away time-wise, but the real distance is at this point 70 billion light years away, compounded by the fact that the object probably isn't there anymore, or has been absorbed by larger galaxies.

That's why there are multiple ways of discribing what's out there.

that part I can agree with, sweetie

Oh my goodness, you loose slut!

PurpleJedi said:

Graycap23 said:

What does age have 2 do with distance?

I think that I just answered my own question...

This object was at a certain point 13.3 billion years ago because that's how long the light has been traveling to the point where we are now...so we are seeing into the past.

I dunno...makes my head spin.

i will give it a try(bear with me)

there's a difference between the light travel distance(or look-back distance);

meaning the proper distance between the observer and the distant object at the time the

light was emitted/the amount of time the light travelled from the distant object to the observer

and the comoving distance; meaning the proper distance of the object at the present time,

right now

continues next post....

[Edited 1/5/13 20:14pm]

morningsong said:

Silly.

Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. The comoving distance from an observer to a distant object (e.g. galaxy) can be computed by the following formula:

The math is such a completely different language I don't think there's a layman term that can be translated into.

... X= comoving distance

present time or t

time of emission of the light(photons) or t(small)e

;light travel distance is the speed of light or c times the cosmological time interval,

i.e. the integral of (c dt)

;comoving distance is the speed of light or c times the cosmological time interval

divided by the scale factor or a(t),

i.e. the integral of (c dt/a(t))

the proper distance will become larger due to the expansion of the Universe,

but will remain constant due to an increasing scale factor,

i.e. the comoving distance

[Edited 1/5/13 20:20pm]

so the universe is quite at ease with expanding faster than the speed of light... it itself is not constrained by the limits within space time.

i learned something this morning!

Good thread