EGS8p7 was identified by the Hubble Space Telescope and selected as a candidate for investigation based on data gathered by both Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The universe itself is currently believed to be 13.8 billion years old and the study confirms earlier revisions of the earliest galaxy formations thought to be possible as early as 200 million years after the Big Bang.

Using an instrument called MOSFIRE (multi-object spectrometer for infra-red exploration) at he W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, a spectrographic analysis of the galaxy revealed it’s age. The method measures redshift which is an effect similar to the Doppler effect on sound waves. With celestial objects light is used instead of sound. Redshift is commonly used to measure the distance of galaxies, stars and other celestial objects but because light is used for measurement, the method is difficult to use on the most distant and faintest objects in the universe.

It is currently believed that the conditions prevalent in the early universe makes the detection of light impossible. Up until 380.000 years of formation the universe consisted of a soup of neutral electrons, protons and photons believed to block all passage of light. When the universe was around 500 million years old the first galaxies are thought to have “turned on” and re-ionized the neutral gas creating the conditions of today’s universe.

Prior the re-ionization occurred clouds of neutral hydrogen absorbed radiation emitted by the newly formed galaxies. The study detected the so called Lyman-alpha line which according to current theories should not be possible to detect at such an early age, as such it may cause the current theories about the early formation of the cosmos to be revised.

“The surprising aspect about the present discovery is that we have detected this Lyman-alpha line in an apparently faint galaxy at a time when the universe should be full of absorbing hydrogen clouds,” according to Ellis.

A theory for the discrepancy is that EGS8p7 which is an unusually luminous galaxy may be powered by a group of very hot young stars. The stars may have special properties that enabled the galaxy to create a massive bubble of ionized hydrogen much earlier than thought possible for more common galaxies at the time says Sirio Belli, a Caltech graduate student who worked on the project.

Watch: https://youtu.be/NwTzbWZQ6Jo

updated 00:47 pm