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Oct 21, 2010

This Is the Oldest Space Object Ever Found

This is the oldest object we've found yet in space. It's a galaxy whose light traveled more than 13 billion light-years before it was visible to Hubble. And it's only 600 million years younger than the universe itself.

What you're looking at above is an artist's rendering of UDFy-38135539, the most ancient space object we've been able to locate to date.

It's about 160 million years older than the previous oldest galaxy, which was found back in 2006. The most exciting part? Astronomers speculate that the oldest galaxies formed as early as 200 million years after the Big Bang, meaning we've got a whole lot of discovering still ahead of us.

57 comments:

  1. Imagine what we'll be able to find with the technology in 10 or 20 years.

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  2. wonder what the artist had to base the rendering on?

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  3. wow this is awesome news, imagine the advanced life in that galaxy.

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  4. That is beautiful. I wonder what it looks like now, if it exists at all?

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  5. I heard about this, pretty amazing

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  6. Wow. So basically, it's incomprehensibly old. Haha.

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  7. It's scary how much stuff is out there that we will never know about.

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  8. very cool! and very nice render also ;)

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  9. Wow makes you think how much other great stuff is out there that we will probably never experience.

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  10. Great thing, but also a little bit wary.,

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  11. I love astronomy, will be stopping by daily for some good info.

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  12. Kinda reminds you just how tiny and insignificant we really are.

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  13. If people can't see that there isn't life out there just by looking at what we can see, then they are nuts....

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  14. Imagine if there was another Earth in that galaxy and they're looking through their telescopes at us and wondering if there is life. Mind warp.

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  15. it looks pretty gay, i thought it would of look more badass being an ancient object

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  16. I hope the artist was at least an astrophysicist.

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  17. Read about this earlier. Really cool news!

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  18. This is incredible. Love space-related images

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  19. Makes me wonder about the planets in said galaxy...What is there? Ya know?

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  20. That is amusen!
    Imagine, how old could be Universe?

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  21. freaking awesome, I wonder what we'll discover next

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  22. I wish I was born later so I could pop into space whenever I feel like it.
    "And it's only 600 million years younger than the universe itself."
    Don't you mean 600 million years older? :)

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  23. what ever it is, it looks amazing :D

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  24. fantastic news! Keep'em coming!

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  25. I hope we make massive advances in space travel in my lifetime...

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  26. Really shows how insignificant we are compared to how old the universe is..

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  27. I still don't understand why people get excited about these things. We know there's old stuff out there, it's hardly surprising.

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  28. I thought the oldest space object was Joan Collins' lady parts.

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  29. Woah that is freaking awesome! Cool picture too :O

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  30. When i see this, I realize how small we are...

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  31. this makes me sad I will not live to explore space myself :(

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  32. just amazing like this so much

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  33. Amazing how old it is and it still looks that amazing.

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  34. its beautiful... *single tear rolls down cheek*

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  35. Interesting. Now only if we could travel to other solar systems, we'd be 1/10th of the way to exploring such a galaxy

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  36. How do they know how old light is? o-o

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