Hubble Team Breaks Cosmic Distance Record

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Hubble Team Breaks Cosmic Distance Record'

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 surprisingly bright, infant galaxy, named GN-z11, is seen as it was 13.4 billion years in the past, just 400 million years after the big bang. GN-z11 is located in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major.

"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," explained principal investigator Pascal Oesch of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The team includes scientists from Yale University, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, and the University of California in Santa Cruz, California.

Source

[Likely Guy]

13.4 billion years ago?

We live in a time machine.

[Zamor]

Amazing!

When the universe was only 3% of it's current age!

That is very close to the time of the big bang, so it's easy to think that if we can send up a telescope that is slightly better than Hubble we would be able to see the big bang!

So I wonder if there are some limitations governed by the law of nature that prohibits this?

You would Think that else there would be more focus on this task and talk about it.

Zam

[Taun]

All this immense time and distance is utterly amazing... And hard to grasp... Intellectually, humans can think in terms of billions of light years, billions of years... But emotionally we still

count "I,2,3, many"...

Edited March 4, 2016 by Taun

[Nnicolette]

Personally im inclined to not believe in the big bang so i am really curious to know if there are any hints of anything existing behind the galaxy. It will indeed be enlightening when the first photograph of 0% of that supposed distance or less is snapped. I can't wait to see what the James Webb shows.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Nnicolette

[Susanc241]

but is spinning much faster and is spawning new stars at a much faster rate than our own galaxy.

IS? If it is 13.4 billion light years away then shouldn't that be WAS? Perhaps all galaxies spin faster and birth new stars at a faster rate when young. It may well have calmed down a bit by now.

[paperdyer]

Personally im inclined to not believe in the big bang so i am really curious to know if there are any hints of anything existing behind the galaxy. It will indeed be enlightening when the first photograph of 0% of that supposed distance or less is snapped. I can't wait to see what the James Webb shows.

Wasn't there an article last year stating that the "Big Bang" was mathematically proved? Regardless we still have the who/what caused the "Big Bang". A question that won't be answered in my lifetime.

[stevemagegod]

So when we find that starting point of the universe we find God.

[Taun]

So when we find that starting point of the universe we find God.

I think we find God's mama, wondering where he went to this time...

[R.E.H Fan]

Everything about the big bang is guess work. The article last year was that modern science acually disproves it when adding quantum equations to the existing model.

[questionmark]

I wonder why anybody is amazed that the light we see is "smaller" than the Milky Way, we are talking about light that took 13.4 billion years to get to us and given that the Big Bang happened 13.7 billion years ago (give or take a few) what we are seeing is a galaxy that has yet to fully expand... which also explains it being so bright.

[Gecks]

Thats the problem with the big bang theory or even the theory of evolution. They are theorys not fact. Strong theorys perhaps but more works needed which will take longer than our life time... if ever.... to make them more solid. Because people accept the theorys as fact there seems to be a brick wall in place whenever anyone challenges the theorys

[Waspie_Dwarf]

They are theorys not fact.

This is a misunderstanding of what "theory" means in science:

A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.

(My emphasis)

Source: Wikipedia

You are doing what a lot of people that don't fully understand the scientific method do, confuse a theory with a hypothesis:

A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon.

(My emphasis again)

Source: Wikipedia

Gravity is "only" a theory but no sane person is going to step out of a top floor window because gravity hasn't been proven.

[BeastieRunner]

Go go Hubble Team!

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

Thats the problem with the big bang theory or even the theory of evolution. They are theorys not fact. Strong theorys perhaps but more works needed which will take longer than our life time... if ever.... to make them more solid. Because people accept the theorys as fact there seems to be a brick wall in place whenever anyone challenges the theorys

Otherwise what Waspie_Dwarf said.

[Sundew]

Otherwise what Waspie_Dwarf said.

The difference is that gravity can be tested and the test repeated giving the same results time after time. The same cannot be said about evolution. Even if 100% fact, you could not expect the same results with each "run" of the test.

[Likely Guy]

The difference is that gravity can be tested and the test repeated giving the same results time after time. The same cannot be said about evolution. Even if 100% fact, you could not expect the same results with each "run" of the test.

No, of course not as random environmental/genetic variables might change the outcome and it will probably never be "100% fact" because we don't yet understand all of the variables.

But evolution is a fact, we've observed the obvious. We just can't explain it in it's entirety yet.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Likely Guy

[Hugh]

Fascinating to think of how many life forms in the universe have viewed the light from our own Milky Way Galaxy in its infancy 13.4 billion light years ago as the furthest distant object seen...

[Likely Guy]

Fascinating to think of how many life forms in the universe have viewed the light from our own Milky Way Galaxy in its infancy 13.4 billion light years ago as the furthest distant object seen...

We looked a lot younger then too. This is so cool because it's like taking a picture of someone on their hundreth birthday and getting back a photo of a baby.

[coolguy]

Great pic the hubble is awesome