spacetoday.net: Astronomers find new record-holder for most distant galaxy

Posted: Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 7:59 AM ET (1159 GMT)
z8_GND_5296 galaxy illustration (McDonald Obs.)

Astronomers announced this week the discovery of a galaxy that sets a new record for the most distant galaxy from the Earth. The galaxy, designated z8_GND_5296, has a redshift of 7.51, meaning it dates back to about 700 million years after the Big Bang, a distance that corresponds to 30 billion light-years when the expansion of the universe is taken into account. Astronomers discovered the galaxy in a Hubble Space Telescope survey called CANDELS, and followed up in observations by the Keck Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers also noted the galaxy was undergoing a "starburst" of stellar formation, creating new stars at a rate 100 times that of the current Milky Way galaxy.