Most distant Galaxy discovered.,

[dph1nm]

Nigel, what are the prospects for other similar observations? anything in the pipeline?

I believe there are (roughly) four other candidates they have/are looking at - but this one was the brightest. They are trying get confirmation of the redshift ...

NigelM

[Hypernova]

It truly boggles the mind at the distances involved when imaging such far away objects. The light left that galaxy over 13 billion years ago when it was "only" 3.2 billion light years away, but the expansion of the universe has now carried that galaxy to 30 billion light years so it isn't the actual galaxy that is moving, just the space between us and it.

As a consequence the light as been stretched out and the distance that light has travelled has been much greater than it originally would've been and has taken much longer to reach us. Currently the galaxy is receding from us a speed greater than that of light because of the universe's expansion.

I hope that I am understanding this correctly. It is pain to understand, especially for someone who has no background in astrophysics At least not until I go to uni in 2012

[callisto]

I got lost at galaxy.

Ha Ha, Thats what I was thinking

Try keeping it simple for poor souls like us

[George]

So if the galaxy because of expansion is receding faster than the speed of light must mean at some point it will just switch off....disappear?

[George Jones]

So if the galaxy because of expansion is receding faster than the speed of light must mean at some point it will just switch off....disappear?

This is counter-intuitive, but no, if we can see, a galaxy A now, it will never disappear. At some future time, A will be receding with a speed greater than the speed of light, but, even after this time, we will see A with (exponentially) increasing redshift, and with increasing faintness. In principle, we will never lose sight of A.

[Earl]

This is counter-intuitive, but no, if we can see, a galaxy A now, it will never disappear. At some future time, A will be receding with a speed greater than the speed of light, but, even after this time, we will see A with (exponentially) increasing redshift, and with increasing faintness. In principle, we will never lose sight of A.

Is that even after billions of years of accelerated expansion?

[George Jones]

Is that even after billions of years of accelerated expansion?

Yes. Strange, isn't it?

[Earl]

well if you think of light as a exhaust fume from a luminous object, which I guess is one way of looking at it, regardless of the speed the object is traveling the light is going to be emited from a certain point in space, which the light moves from that point not the object.

Bit like smoke from a train, even if the train is going very fast the smoke still comes out and makes its smoke coming from a train shape.