Red dot of 13.5 billion years: the oldest element

His name is GLASS-z13the oldest body in the cosmos. An international study led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics analyzed a swarm of galaxies called Abell 2744. Here are the traces of GLASS-z11 and GLASS-z13 and the “redshifts” (red dots) of the objects, especially 11 and 13.

The red dot is nothing more than a measure of the amount of light emitted by an elongated galaxy from the expanding universe. As the redshift is high, the source will be further away. Simply put, redshift 11 and 13 mean we see the two galaxies as they were more than 13.4 billion years ago. The further objects are from the telescope, the longer it takes their light to reach us. So observing the most distant universe means traveling back in time.

Many of the preliminary records created with the data are already falling apart and others are faltering. I only applaud when science has made a clear peer review. But all this data looks promising.

Thomas Zurbuchen, chief scientist at NASA

The first data from Naidu’s team’s research is already revealing big surprises. The galaxy has a diameter of 4,500 light-years and a mass of 1,000 million stars. However, everything remains to be clarified, because after only 300 million years from the Big Bang, the formation of so many stars would be impossible. Furthermore, GLASS-z11 appears as a elongated galaxy with growing spiral disc. Most galaxies, on the other hand, have a lumpy appearance.

GLASS-z11 is the demonstration that the galactic structure is forming faster. A week after the first telescope detection, there are already more detailed images of galaxies dating back to 13.5 billion years ago. In the coming decades we will see the universe through the eyes of a Webb telescope.