NASA plans to announce a new discovery by its Hubble Space Telescope Wednesday (Dec. 12) that will shed light on the evolution of the early universe, officials said.

Scientists "will report on recent observations of a previously unseen population of primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago," NASA officials wrote in a media advisory Monday (Dec. 10). The findings will be revealed during a teleconference with reporters Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT).

Astronomers believe the Big Bang that created our universe occurred about 13.7 billion years ago.

The people participating in the press conference are John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate; Caltech astrophysicist Richard Ellis; and Abraham Loeb, who chairs Harvard's astronomy department. NASA will stream live audio of the teleconference on its website here: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

The iconic Hubble Space Telescope is a joint operation of NASA and the European Space Agency. The instrument has made more than 1 million science observations since its launch in April 1990, and it's still going strong.

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