NASA Hubble Space Telescope Discovers Oldest Galaxy Yet

Impact

Hubble Space Telescope astronomers revealed on Wednesday that the earliest galaxies formed more than 13 billion years ago, reported USA Today

The discovery was made thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope that allowed the 'Hubble Team' to perform a 'census' of the oldest and most distant galaxies yet.   

'Team Hubble' used the legendary Hubble Space Telescope to take an 'Ultra Deep Field' image that allowed then to 'peek' into the most distant and oldest galaxies yet — just 380 million years 'younger' than the Big Bang. 

NASA Caltech astrophysicist Richard Ellis, who headed the observation effort, said, "this 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event [...] we are seeing a very smooth development in the number of observations." 

Meanwhile, Harvard astronomer Abraham Loeb — who is not part of Team Hubble — said, "these early galaxies represent the building blocks of today's galaxies [...] it's the scientific story of Genesis, basically."

Read more on USA Today.