Sunday, January 1, 2012

Oldest Galaxy?

Astronomers, after taking two years to confirm their data, recently announced the discovery of what could be one of the first galaxies to form. It is 12.9 billion light years away, which means it may have formed only 750 million years after the Big Bang.

A galaxy so early on surprised astronomers, but they had another shocker coming. The galaxy is also producing stars at a prodigious rate-- another fact that goes against current theories about the early universe and the earliest galaxies.

Possibly, the first galaxy found in that early epoch happens to be an anomaly. If further research finds the earliest galaxies were in fact energetic, dynamic places, however, theory will have to change.

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