Nasa finds the most distant galaxy in the known universe
The two galaxies are the earliest ever seen in the universe, dating back to when the cosmos was just 300 million years old. The record-holding furthest galaxy is not only remarkable for its distance but also for how big and bright it is, experts said – a surprising result that could better help us understand how the universe began.
The galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z14-0, appears to be astonishingly bright and 1,600 light-years across. It is so bright that it is thought to be several hundreds of millions of times the mass of our Sun – and researchers are not clear how such a “bright, massive and large galaxy” could have been made in less than 300 million years.
The size of the galaxy clearly proves that most of the light is being produced by large numbers of young stars,” said Daniel Eisenstein, a Harvard professor and chair of the astronomy department, “rather than material falling onto a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s center, which would appear much smaller.”
It suggests that even in its infancy the universe was rapidly creating large, massive galaxies, scientists said. “It is stunning that the Universe can make such a galaxy in only 300 million years,” said Stefano Carniani of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, a lead author on the paper describing the findings. Nasa
