The Hubble Space Telescope has detected a new galaxy that could be the oldest ever witnessed by humans, according to reports from scientists around the world. This galaxy is thought to be more than 13 billion years old and to have come into existence about 480 million years after the Big Bang. Garth Illingworth, a Hubble principal investigator at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told the National Post the galaxy is equivalent in size to about 1 percent of the Milky Way. The discovery of the galaxy suggests there was rapid change in the rate of star births during the universe's early beginnings, between 480 and 650 million years after the Big Bang. Illingworth said he believes by looking even further back in time, it may be possible to see a greater amount of change in the early universe, when the first galaxies were just beginning to form.
Although this observation has not been confirmed, scientists are confident they have discovered a new ancient galaxy.
Astronomers await the future launch of the James Webb Telescope in 2014, the result of a project sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. This telescope will have the sensitivity and power to explore 200 million years further back in cosmic time than the Hubble. With new technology, scientists will be able to examine the steps in the early development of the universe and come even closer to a complete understanding.
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-compiled by Jennifer Tran
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