Hubble Spies Never-Before-Seen Galaxies

(AP)  The refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the oldest galaxies yet, scientists reported Tuesday.

A newly installed wide field camera on Hubble this summer captured the never-before-seen galaxies, which were formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists believe that massive explosion led to the creation of the universe.

The image was taken in a region of space that Hubble scanned in 2004. Since the new camera has a near-infared channel, it allows the orbiting telescope to peer deeper into the universe and spot distant galaxies.

The camera was installed in May by NASA spacewalking astronauts as part of a mission to upgrade and repair the aging telescope.

Hubble is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency.

[ranger2930]

Galaxies 600 million years old? I thought they said the Earth was 4.5 billion years old itself. What's the big deal?

I'd believe 600 million light years away maybe. Think that's what they meant?

[displeased]

They claim these galaxies formed 600 million years after the big bang which will make them about 13 billion years old.

[egresor]

what they are seeing isn't galaxies 600 million light years away

what they are seeing is the light from galaxies that existed 600 millions years from the time of the big bang. so we are seeing what those galaxies looked like 600 million years from the big bang.

it is like looking at a time window...seeing into the past.

[mrjustice1]

WHY DID THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HATE BERTRAND RUSSELL, WHO WAS ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT PHILOSOPHERS, LOGICIANS AND/OR MATHEMATICIANS EVER?

Ask the religious anus-heads for the answers.

The catholic church and its pope-murderers knew then, and now know, that science is dangerous and threatening. After all, truth, logic, reasoning, mathematics, and nature, are 'no damned good'. They contributed to exposing the most thieving, most murderous, biggest, most fraudulent cover-up in mankind's history - the catholic church.

The catholic church continues to perpetuate lies, and is responsible for more misery, pain, torture, murder and suffering, than just about anything.

Tell us why that perverted cult-church pressured City University of New York to kick Bertrand Russell out.

[AnnieDanny]

600 million years after the Big Bang... I am so annoyed with Scientists lately. I've noticed they throw out millions of years here, and millions of years there, and more millions everywhere. I've also noticed that their numbers take a drastic leap from 10,000 years for many fossils to 10 million years, but you almost never see numbers in the 100,000 year range. They skip that altogether. I don't think any of us can wrap our head around a million years, so I suspect that's why they say it. Baffle 'em with you know what. Scientists can't even agree on whether Chocolate is good or bad for us. Or Butter. Or Coffee. If they can't even get that part right, how do they know anything about the millions and millions of years going on out there?? Okay, so it's really cool that Hubble can see that far away. Why not leave it at that. Six hundred million years after the Big Bang... sounds like baloney to me. I don't think there was a Big Bang either. They know the Universe is moving OUTWARD from a central point somewhere, but they don't know why. They don't know if there was a big bang. Why not say, the Universe is moving outward. If you can prove that much, then that part is interesting. But the Big Bang is a Bit Much. Order never came out of chaos, we don't see it in our world Ever. Doesn't happen. If you stick 600 million years on it, it still won't happen.

[rf35]

Among other things, your statement about scientists never referring to hundreds of thousands of years is completely inaccurate. The hundreds of thousands of years ago range is prime-time for anthropologists of both common flavors. This is the time that humans and their predecessors developed both culturally and physically on the road to modern H. sapiens.
The perceived debate on certain foods and the substances they contain boils down (no pun intended) to the old saying "everything in moderation." These foods and many others have both good and bad components. Even drinking too much water will kill you, but that doesn't make it bad for you. I suppose I am forced to agree with you on the Big Bang point. It is still only a theory, albeit the most widely accepted theory, on the creation of the universe. While I personally think it is the most probable explanation for the observed facts, I am certainly open to entertaining other ideas and would be able to accept a more plausible theory if further evidence emerged to contradict the idea. "Why not say, the Universe is moving outward(?)" Because we naturally desire to know why it is doing so. Order out of chaos? How do you define order and chaos? See the above comment.
I hope I don't sound condescending...I'm just trying to educate, not humiliate.

[briannorwood]

I'm laying 11:2 odds that AnniDanny is a Republican too. And even money that she's somehow related to Sarah Palin.

[YoureSoWrong14]

In the oldest of these galaxies, they just paid-off their government's debts.

[AnnieDanny]

Oh, thank you. That was a really good LOL. :)

[djconklin]

>But I bet you support the Iraq quagmire.

***?!?

On an article about astronomy you idjuts bring up politics?!?

[egresor]

pete_in_az December 8, 2009 8:14 PM EST
But I bet you support the Iraq quagmire.

============

absolutely not.

not with bush and not with obama.

he gave the impression pre-election that he would get us out of that quagmire and when he gets into office the same psychology takes place with him as it does with every president.

they get less liberal and more conservative

the weight of the office of president brings with it the weight of responsibilty and the fear of failing to protect this country.

it happened with others and it has happened with obama.

now he listens to the military and gates.

poor advisors to pick to get america out of war.

[egresor]

i will have you know i have more than a little knowledge of astronomy and physics.

it seems man's vanity for knowledge that doesn't contribute to people's lives holds sway.

yes it is amazing that man can do such a thing, but again....so what. how is that extending my lifetime?

how did spending all that money help people?

lots of pretty pictures that people go "WOW" "THAT"S NEAT"

and it is, but worth the money spent on it?

i wonder how many thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each one of those pretty pictures cost us?

apparently people don't care when vanity is involved.

turn all those billions to people's health and this country's infrastructure.

you very much enjoy those photographs when you try to drive on the interstate highway system or cross over bridges that need repair or replaced --- won't you?


:(

[pete_in_az]

But I bet you support the Iraq quagmire.

[SarahW3]

"..so what. how is that extending my lifetime? "

...maybe if you stopped thinking about yourself for just a moment, and looked at the larger picture you could see the benefit of exploring everything that surrounds us.
No one is capable of knowing everything, but what humans are doing through science is building a database of knowledge to continually build off. Maybe you're not familiar with it, but there is evidence to suggest that the same forces and laws that govern planets on the large scale govern every molecule of life. Including your own life. ANYTHING that we can learn about this planet we live on and all of the external bodies around our planet helps us to understand all of existence as a whole.
If you want to investigate something, you don't just look in the immediate area, you look for clues as far out as you can find them, so that you are able to sit down, bring them all together and solve your problem from where it started, not from where it has ended. Everything we look at in your body is the end result of that 13.5 billion years of the universe forming. Science can not simply look at you as a single organism that was created under 100 years ago, because your creation was dependent on EVERY event that preceded your birth.

All aspects of our world need to be investigated with the same thoroughness in order to produce a clear picture, this picture is getting clearer with every new piece of data that is recorded.

[kansas1946]

Pretty cool. Don't you just wonder what is going on in these early galaxies?? Are their intellegent beings far advanced of us because their galaxy is so much older. It just boggles the mind how far away these things are. I love science. :o)

[burneb]

Supposedly, to see galaxies formed 600 million years after the "big bang" we would be looking at light originating 13 BILLION years ago. How long it took to form the earliest galaxies from primal matter, plus the composition and distribution of such galaxies, provides some clues about the origin of our universe, its future, and the nature of matter, space and time themselves.

Admittedly not of immediate concern in solving current problems of war, poverty, crime, disease, etc. None of this will extend my lifespan or strengthen my retirement accounts. If a few more billions spent on solving other human problems would fix them, I might go with that, but it never does.

If Galileo or Kepler or Halley or Einstein had not spent any time or money on their work, we would still have all the same problems but know at lot less.

It is the nature of the human species to study and explore our universe; we would be something less than human if we did not. So I am willing to invest that tiny fraction of 1% of our resources that we devote to Hubble Telescope, Large Hadron Collider, and other such endeavors for the future of humankind.

[kansas1946]

Me too. In fact, scientific exploration is one area that I never gripe about spending on. If we listened to all of the nay-sayers, none of us would be posting messages on the internet. Instead we would still be burning candles in huts and burning witches.

[egresor]

to the commenter about it being the nature for man to explore and the need to understand who we are and where we came from.

that is true, but nice pictures that probably cost us thousands of dollars each? spend that money on something that help people. research health and energy. those things contribute to people's lives. these things make no appreciable conribution.

the physics such as einstein and newton were scientists that sought understanding of the physics of creation. those are applicable to all fields of science.

this stuff is for wow effect to justify the spending and scientific vanity.

[egresor]

so what!

so the universe is very old....so what.

this need to explore things that are un-necessary for man to know costs billions of taxpaer dollars. for what.

well we know the universe is pretty old.

maybe if we look far enough back we'll see GOD?

right?

sad that things like this have so much money put to them when people's real lives on earth are in ad condition. people starving and sick and devastated by wars and who knows what else, but we now know we can see 600 million years into the past and guess their's a bunch of galaxies showing up as points of light even back then?

i say so what!

pretty good return for billions of dollars.

[thesevenveils]

The scientist are looking for the origin of your ignorance and they find overwhelming examples of your kind's insightfulness: Empty Space.

[ToolMangler1]

Your lack of knowledge is killing you. If you knew more, you would be able to extend your estimated life span. If you knew more, you wouldn't say "So what" You would say 'WOW' what else can that do for me.
But you seem to be dead inside and are simply consuming resources without producing results. Some of us need those resources and ask you to please quit living so that someone that appreciates life can have your resources and benefit someone else with them.