European astronomers last week said a galaxy born in the childhood of the Universe lies at least 13 billion light years away, making it the remotest object ever observed.
Light from the galaxy UDFy-38135539 that reaches Earth today was emitted when the cosmos was only 600 million years old and mired in a primordial “fog” of hydrogen atoms, they said.
It has taken 13.1 billion years, traveling at 300,000kps, for this smudge of infant light to arrive.
PHOTO: AFP/NASA 照片：法新社／美國太空總署
The study, appearing in the British journal Nature, used a giant European telescope in Chile’s Atacama desert to measure the galaxy’s so-called redshift.
The more distant a light source is, the longer its wavelength stretches. In other words, a light that appears to be receding from the observer shifts more towards the red part of the optical spectrum.
In this case, the galaxy’s redshift was 8.6, making it the most distant object ever observed by spectroscopy.
The previous documented record, in 2009, was a redshift of 8.2 caused by a gamma-ray burst of a super-massive star. An object at a redshift of 10 was once reported but has never been confirmed.
“Measuring the redshift of the most distant galaxy so far is very exciting in itself, but the astrophysical implications of this detection are even more important,” said Nicole Nesvadba of France’s Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale.
“This is the first time we know for sure that we are looking at one of the galaxies that cleared out the fog which had filled the very early Universe.”
UDFy-38135539 — whose name comes from its location in the “Ultra Deep Field” zone of deep space — was first spotted last year by the US orbital telescope Hubble.(AFP)
歐洲天文學家上週表示，發現目前我們觀測所及最遠的一個銀河系，大約形成於宇宙剛誕生時，距離我們一百三十億光年之遙。
天文學家表示，從UDFy-38135539銀河發出來的光線到達地球，是宇宙年齡才六億年的時候的光線，並籠罩在一團原始的氫原子「霧氣」中。
這個模糊的光線足足花了一百三十一億年，以每秒三十萬公里的速度穿越時空，才到達我們。
這份刊登於英國「自然」雜誌的研究，使用的是個裝在智利阿塔卡馬沙漠的歐洲巨型望遠鏡，該望遠鏡用來測量銀河所謂的紅移。
距離越遠的光源光線到達我們時，其波長越長。換句話說，光線距離觀察者越遠，它的光也比較偏向紅色光譜。
在這種情況下，銀河的紅移測量值為八點六，也因此成為以光譜學所觀察過距離最遠的目標。
上次於二零零九年所紀錄的紅移測量值為八點二，是由一顆超級巨星所爆發出的伽瑪射線所引起。另一個案例是紅移測量值高達十，但此案例未曾獲證實。
法國太空天文物理學學院的尼蔻兒‧內斯伐德巴說，「測量這距離我們最遠的銀河紅移本身是個令人興奮的事情，但這項發現的天文物理內涵甚至更重要。」
「這是我們首次確認所觀察的是個遠離宇宙非常初期霧團的銀河之一。」
UDFy-38135539銀河─其名稱來自於外太空的「超級遠區域」（Ultra Deep Field）─是美國哈柏望遠鏡首次發現。
（法新社／翻譯：吳岱璟）
Many consumers are guilty of filling drawers or closets with old laptops, cellphones, fitness trackers and other electronic devices once they are no longer needed. It’s hard to know where to recycle such items, or it seems costly and inconvenient to do so. The world generates millions of tons of electronic waste — also called e-waste — each year. According to the UN’s most recent estimate, people worldwide produced 62 million metric tons of e-waste in 2022, and only about 22 percent of it was properly recycled. The US’ Environmental Protection Agency estimates that less than a quarter of e-waste is
You’re sitting in class when a classmate asks to borrow a pencil. It seems like a small favor, so you agree without hesitation. The following week, the same classmate asks to share your notes. Later, they request help with a group project. You agree each time — after all, you helped out the first time — but before you know it, it has become automatic. This scenario demonstrates the “foot-in-the-door technique,” a psychological concept that shows how agreeing to small, acceptable demands makes it easier to accept larger ones later on. The name for this strategy comes from door-to-door
A: The four-day Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend begins Friday and will run until Monday. Are you going to sweep your ancestors’ tombs? B: I did in advance last weekend, so I can go to Kaohsiung to see the musical “The Phantom of the Opera.” A: Wow, is “Phantom” touring Taiwan again? It debuted in 1986, so this year marks the 40th anniversary of the show. B: And it’s not just touring Kaohsiung starting March 31, but also Taipei starting April 21 and Taichung starting May 26. A: “Phantom” is one of the world’s Four Major Musicals. I’ve seen all of them, except “Les
Continued from yesterday（延續自昨日） https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Gig Tripping “Gig tripping” combines concerts with travel. People fly to see their favorite artists perform — usually abroad—and spend a few days sightseeing before or after the show. While die-hard fans have done this since the 1960s, the post-pandemic travel boom changed the game. Even people who aren’t superfans are now booking international concert trips because they want to make the most of travel opportunities. This trend exploded in the US, as the math makes sense. Domestic concert tickets are so costly that flying abroad for the show plus tourism expenses often matches or even beats the price
RSS