Discovery of the oldest and most distant galaxies from Earth – ElTiempo.com

An international team of researchers has located groups oldest and most distant galaxies from Earth, formations born about 2,000 or 3,000 million years after the Big Bang, which are the precursors of clusters galaxies we see today

The finding, published today in the journal Astronomy & Dev. Astrophysics serve to better understand the origin of the universe and what it contains. A discovery that would not have been possible without the satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA), Planck and Herschel, two pointers instruments designed to map and analyze the cosmos from orbit around 1.5 million miles from Earth.

The researcher Department of Physics, University of Oviedo and study co-author Luigi Toffolatti explained that through these two satellites found “groups of older galaxies, precursors of clusters of galaxies seen today. ” Previously it had located farthest galaxies from Earth than these, but “this is the first concrete observation of proto-galaxies that are within groups.” Specifically, the images captured by Planck show groups of tens of galaxies yet are forming and are therefore relatively smaller than ours, and ‘more compact’.

They also have a high star formation that are being observed at the time being created, a detail that would not have seen without Planck, because only this satellite has observed ‘all-sky’ in the microwave.

And that the detectors of Planck and Herschel satellites were sensitive the region of the electromagnetic spectrum far infrared and microwave, a strip where there are few specialized tools like these.

The finding help you understand “how gravity could eventually create over cosmic time “today’s galaxies and groups and clusters that are at present, although it will be years before astronomers are able to explain many things.

” We’re just at the beginning of this project, most impressive results are still to come in the coming months, “said Professor Hervé Dole, director of the study and an astrophysicist at the University of Orsay (Paris).

Until now, thanks to the data provided by Planck , has confirmed the finding of 228 groups of primeval galaxies, but when all the information from the satellites of the ESA is analyzed, “will find more,” according Toffolatti.

At the same time, the finding shows is important to have satellites capable to capture, classify and study the treasures of the cosmos: “We could say that Planck has discovered the treasure chest to find these compact groups of galaxies in the distant Universe and Herschel has looked inside to find the bright gold coins hidden there, the high star-forming galaxies, “described Toffolatti.

EFE