Giant 13-Billion-Year-Old Galaxy Found at Very Edge of Universe

Scientists have located a giant 13-billion year old galaxy at the edge of the observable universe.  Detecting this huge galaxy  was a challenge because of the massive quantities of light coming from the black hole, and if you think you spotted two problems in that sentence, read on.

The galaxy, which is 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is as large as the Milky Way galaxy and harbors a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as does our Sun.

"It is surprising that such a giant galaxy existed when the universe was only one-sixteenth of its present age, and that it hosted a black hole one billion times more massive than the sun. The galaxy and black hole must have formed very rapidly in the early universe," said University of Hawaii astronomer Dr. Tomotsugu Goto who discovered the object.

Scientists have located a giant 13-billion year old galaxy at the edge of the observable universe.  Detecting this huge galaxy  was a challenge because of the massive quantities of light coming from the black hole, and if you think you spotted two problems in that sentence, read on.

The galaxy, which is 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is as large as the Milky Way galaxy and harbors a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as does our Sun.

"It is surprising that such a giant galaxy existed when the universe was only one-sixteenth of its present age, and that it hosted a black hole one billion times more massive than the sun. The galaxy and black hole must have formed very rapidly in the early universe," said University of Hawaii astronomer Dr. Tomotsugu Goto who discovered the object.

"How can a galaxy be giant when it's the same size as our own?" is because of lightspeed - the galaxy is almost thirteen billion light-years away, which means it's almost thirteen billion years ago, which is almost as much "ago" as there is.  When the universe was only about a billion years old even a Milky Way sized galaxy was pretty big, and the supermassive black hole in the center was impressively huge.

Which brings us to the second issue: light coming from a black hole.  Everyone knows that nothing can escape from a black hole, not even light, but that's only after matter passes the "event horizon" - the ultimate one-way sign in spacetime.  But as matter falls in towards this cut-off point it's heated up by friction, radiating energy away as light, and this emission from infalling matter makes up over half of all the light detected from the distant galaxy.  This is why we didn't see it before - a little thing like a few hundred billion stars was outshone by the superheated material around the black hole.

Detection was made possible by newly upgraded CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) Cameras fitted to the Suprime-Cam in the Hawaiian Mauna Kea observatory.  The improvement was engineered by Professor Satoshi Miyazaki and colleagues of the National Observatory of Japan.

The new early-stage black hole-galaxy system will be an important clue in the evolution of such supermassive black holes.  While asking how they get so big might sound simple (they just keep eating stuff, including each other), their ability such spectacular size in so short a time isn't explained by any current creation theories.  And by "spectacular size" me mean about a giga-Sun of mass.  

Yet another reminder of the amazing: our amazing ability to detect such incredibility, and the amazing universe where such awe-inspiring objects can be lost down the back of the cosmological sofa until we look really hard.

Luke McKinney

Image: is a false-color image of the QSO, the most distant black hole currently known. In addition to the bright central black hole (white), the image shows the surrounding host galaxy (red). 

Tomotsugu Goto, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Giant Galaxy Detected

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tomo/QSOhost/QSOhost_v7.pdf

Which brings us to the second issue: light coming from a black hole.  Everyone knows that nothing can escape from a black hole, not even light, but that's only after matter passes the "event horizon" - the ultimate one-way sign in spacetime.  But as matter falls in towards this cut-off point it's heated up by friction, radiating energy away as light, and this emission from infalling matter makes up over half of all the light detected from the distant galaxy.  This is why we didn't see it before - a little thing like a few hundred billion stars was outshone by the superheated material around the black hole.

Detection was made possible by newly upgraded CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) Cameras fitted to the Suprime-Cam in the Hawaiian Mauna Kea observatory.  The improvement was engineered by Professor Satoshi Miyazaki and colleagues of the National Observatory of Japan.

The new early-stage black hole-galaxy system will be an important clue in the evolution of such supermassive black holes.  While asking how they get so big might sound simple (they just keep eating stuff, including each other), their ability such spectacular size in so short a time isn't explained by any current creation theories.  And by "spectacular size" me mean about a giga-Sun of mass.  

Yet another reminder of the amazing: our amazing ability to detect such incredibility, and the amazing universe where such awe-inspiring objects can be lost down the back of the cosmological sofa until we look really hard.

Luke McKinney

Image: is a false-color image of the QSO, the most distant black hole currently known. In addition to the bright central black hole (white), the image shows the surrounding host galaxy (red). 

Tomotsugu Goto, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Giant Galaxy Detected

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tomo/QSOhost/QSOhost_v7.pdf

Comments

[pThomas]

Wow...and i thought i was old.

[4]

I believe the universe extends far beyond 13 billion light years. Maybe this is just as far as our instruments can detect?

[Truth]

I believe you are a fool. My instruments detected it.

[Andrew]

That's right, 4, the universe is much bigger than what we can see of it. But unfortunately, our instruments cannot see beyond the observable universe, which is the space around us bounded by the event horizon - the distance to which light can have traveled since the universe originated. According to inflationary cosmology, the entire universe is much bigger than the observable one, and the confine of observable universe depends on the location. Observers living in the galaxy mentioned in this article and beyond have their own observable universes that are different from ours.

[Raj]

Yes, there is more likelihood that the universe is much vaster and older than the horizons of our present technological abilities.

Also many aspects of the universe must be COGNITIVELY CLOSED for us at our present level of evolution in the same manner as the quantum theory is for squirrels.

Raj
http://rewiringthebrain.net/

[kannan]

iam certain that the universe is any times bigger than 13 billion lightyears. nothing can block space or put limits to it,except for the presence of something like matter.and we know there is not much matter out there. it is on and on.expanding for ever. we have to stop our pre-colunbus ideologies about space and drop the black hole and einstein concepts which try to limit the size of the universe.the universe does not depend on black holes for its existence and surivival.

[worthruss]

Biblical creation theory claims we're all born of sin, that new top view of the Milky Way NASA put out makes the black hole look pretty vaginal. Falling in penis first would give you a really large stretched erection, that would make it feel a lot more "sin"ful as you fell "in". All the elements on this there is no new thing under the sun planet have been around as long as our little star. Maybe the gravity that keeps us trapped on earth and threatens whole solar systems from a black hole is the unholiest greed that threatens God's universe from within. All that pretty radiation you folks think is so pretty scares me. Having enough faith to go on a star trek away from the big black hole and away from all that radiation seems like a semiplausable way to keep on seeking Heaven to me. How long was a day before the earth was created? One spin of the Milky Way, or one spin of the Universe? Some study the Bible and find new meanings some act on a single first impression.

[zerd]

is that galaxy old , like lots of old stars in it , or the stars are new ?

[Barrie O'Leary]

All the billions of stars would be young but now, 13 billion years later, they would all have long since entered a senile stage and have exploded, scattering star dust throughout which has since developed new star that have burntout now and, just like our own Milky Way, the stars now are probably third generation. Fascinating, isn't it? It has taken the light that formed the photograph 13 billion years to reach the earth. WOW!

[claudio]

Is it really a galaxy like Milky way ??

I could not see from the few scattered pixels of the image and I do not think they at Hawaii telescope have more pixels at 13 Billion LY of distance.

However if it is (WAS) a galaxy with massive black hole in the center (Massive BH in the center of galaxies are nothing new) it is surprising how early it formed.

Regards to the very old galaxies wich are gone away.

[Desdemon]

Answer to Raj. I agree that the univers is far lager then we can see, but space and time are not infinte. Space and time are characteristics, features of an eveniment in the univers. Space and time are twisted by the presence of matter. In fact without matter ( that in fact is a another form of energy) there wolud be no space or time. So matter doesn't pu a "stop" too space and time, matter - energy makes the space and time. We can' "drop" einstein or the black holes (and go back to Newton's simple vision), but we must build and deepen our knowledge about the univers base on what we know now.

[Orpheus]

"their ability such spectacular size in so short a time"

"And by "spectacular size" me mean"

"Yet another reminder of the amazing: our amazing ability to detect such incredibility"

Was this proof-read at all? Was it written under the influence? The grammar really fizzles out toward the end. It's pretty inexcusable; this stuff is basic, people.

[Piper]

The universe is infinite

[casey]

There's a whole lot of stupid here.

[hank_scorpio]

As soon as we figure out how the Universe came into existence it will be destroyed and an even more bizarre and complex Universe will take it's place. Well, that's what happened last time.

[Hank Scorpio]

To add to that - I believe in the last Universe that was created that the beings of that Universe traveled the length and breadth of the Universe and discovered all it's hidden secrets. We're merely only 250,000 as a species, we have a long way to go. We'll figure it out. Then it's destroyed and another is created.

It's pretty straightforward really. It's like a game. A game of life and death. When we die our life force is preserved until the next Universe is ready. Can't really tell what the next Universe will hold, or what we'll look like in the next Universe, I imagine it will be nothing like what we are now or even seen on Earth.

The Universe is a giant scavenger hunt. What creates Universes? What destroys universes? Well the Universe itself, as it's a lifeform, but we haven't figured that out yet, or how to communicate with it. As soon as we do the Universe will recreate a new Universe and repurpose everyone to do it all again, all the while making it more complex and bizarre than the last one.

I estimate that we're on our 13 billionth universe, given that it's the furthest distance that we can detect with modern technology. Although this will be disproven. And I think that Galaxy that is 13 billion light years away is just our early Galaxy, I think the universe wraps around itself, and we can actually look back in time at our own galaxy, that's what we're doing right now. Looking back through time at our own creation. It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

Well that's all I have to say on that. I hope I cleared up a few questions people might have had? This is a very good theory that has no basis or foundation in reality. But it's as good as theory as anything else out there.

Oh where did the first ever Universe come from? I hear you asking that question. Universe was born out of Nothingess. Nothingness is an entity, without nothing we'd have nothing. It's hard to imagine Nothingness, as it's not anything. And because we don't know what Nothingness is because it's impossible to; audiably, physically, metaphysically, etc. to characterise it, as it doesn't have a character. It's beyond humans to understand this entity. But it won't always be.

[Hank Scorpio]

*only 250,000 years old as a species

[Mean Christine]

I had this game. It's for Atari, right?