A team of astronomers from Yale University and University of California discovered a galaxy which is farther than any galaxy ever known to human beings. It is 13.1 billion years old and was discovered using the ancient star system. The discovery of this galaxy has awed the scientists and the public alike.

Like Us on Facebook

Published in "Astrophysical Journal," the identified galaxy is also one of the earliest formed galaxies in the history of the universe, since the occurrence of the big bang, states WGBH News. This discovery has broken the past records as well.

This galaxy now holds the record to be the farthest galaxy from the planet Earth, which is situated at such a far-off location as it continue to expand, even after it was fully created in its existing existential spasm. Named as EGS-zs8-1, it is estimated to be about 30 billion light years away from the planet Earth, states The Guardian.

Since this galaxy is situated billion years away, when the scientists look at it through the Hubble telescope, it appears like they are peeking into the past. Here is the explanation to this phenomenon. Light gets reflected off the moon in 1.3 seconds before it reaches Earth, and it takes up to 8 minutes for the light to get reflected off the surface of the Sun before it reaches Earth. Hence, for an object, which is present billions of light years away from us, it takes so much time for the light to travel back, that it appears like peeking in to the past.

This is helping the astronomers to see ancient and distant galaxies in their young formation; some of these galaxies are about one sixth of the Milky Way and are creating stars at a speed which are 80 times faster than the Milky Way. 

Tagsgalaxy discovered, 13 billion year old galaxy, farthest galaxy from earth, earth farthest galaxy, Astrophysical Journal, EGS-zs8-1