• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 24, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

The farthest galaxy in the universe

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 15, 2020
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Chemical signatures give away the distance to the most distant galaxy

IMAGE

Credit: © Kashikawa et al.

A team of astronomers used the Keck I telescope to measure the distance to an ancient galaxy. They deduced the target galaxy GN-z11 is not only the oldest galaxy but also the most distant. It’s so distant it defines the very boundary of the observable universe itself. The team hopes this study can shed light on a period of cosmological history when the universe was only a few hundred million years old.

We’ve all asked ourselves the big questions at times: “How big is the universe?” or “How and when did galaxies form?” Astronomers take these questions very seriously, and use fantastic tools that push the boundaries of technology to try and answer them. Professor Nobunari Kashikawa from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo is driven by his curiosity about galaxies. In particular, he sought the most distant one we can observe in order to find out how and when it came to be.

“From previous studies, the galaxy GN-z11 seems to be the farthest detectable galaxy from us, at 13.4 billion light years, or 134 nonillion kilometers (that’s 134 followed by 30 zeros),” said Kashikawa. “But measuring and verifying such a distance is not an easy task.”

Kashikawa and his team measured what’s known as the redshift of GN-z11; this refers to the way light stretches out, becomes redder, the farther it travels. Certain chemical signatures, called emission lines, imprint distinct patterns in the light from distant objects. By measuring how stretched these telltale signatures are, astronomers can deduce how far the light must have traveled, thus giving away the distance from the target galaxy.

“We looked at ultraviolet light specifically, as that is the area of the electromagnetic spectrum we expected to find the redshifted chemical signatures,” said Kashikawa. “The Hubble Space Telescope detected the signature multiple times in the spectrum of GN-z11. However, even the Hubble cannot resolve ultraviolet emission lines to the degree we needed. So we turned to a more up-to-date ground-based spectrograph, an instrument to measure emission lines, called MOSFIRE, which is mounted to the Keck I telescope in Hawaii.”

The MOSFIRE captured the emission lines from GN-z11 in detail, which allowed the team to make a much better estimation on its distance than was possible from previous data. When working with distances at these scales, it is not sensible to use our familiar units of kilometers or even multiples of them; instead, astronomers use a value known as the redshift number denoted by z. Kashikawa and his team improved the accuracy of the galaxy’s z value by a factor of 100. If subsequent observations can confirm this, then the astronomers can confidently say GN-z11 is the farthest galaxy ever detected in the universe.

###

Journal article

Linhua Jiang, Nobunari Kashikawa, Shu Wang, Gregory Walth, Luis C. Ho, Zheng Cai, Eiichi Egami, Xiaohui Fan, Kei Ito, Yongming Liang, Daniel Schaerer and Daniel P. Stark. Evidence for GN-z11 as a luminous galaxy at redshift 10.957. Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01275-y

Funding

National Science Foundation of China (11721303, 11890693, 11991052), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFA0400702, 2016YFA0400703) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) through a China-Chile Joint Research Fund (1503) administered by the CAS South America Center for Astronomy, JSPS grant(15H03645).

Useful links

Department of Astronomy – http://www.astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Graduate School of Science – https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html

Previous related research – https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/articles/z0508_00037.html

Research contact

Professor Nobunari Kashikawa

Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo,

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JAPAN

Tel: +81(0)-3-5841-4261

Email: [email protected]

Press Contact

Mr. Rohan Mehra

Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, JAPAN

Email: [email protected]

About the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo is Japan’s leading university and one of the world’s top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world’s top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

Media Contact
Professor Nobunari Kashikawa
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00153.html

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01275-y

Tags: AstronomyAstrophysicsSpace/Planetary Science
Share14Tweet9Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

First-ever observation of the transverse Thomson effect unveiled

August 23, 2025
blank

Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

August 23, 2025

New Molecular-Merged Hypergraph Neural Network Enhances Explainable Predictions of Solvation Gibbs Free Energy

August 22, 2025

Shaping the Future of Dysphagia Diets Through 3D Printing Innovations

August 22, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    141 shares
    Share 56 Tweet 35
  • Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    130 shares
    Share 52 Tweet 33
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    115 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    81 shares
    Share 32 Tweet 20

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Philothamnus Snakes: Breeding, Communication, and Combat

Integrating Life Stories for Patient-Centered Care

Tailored Protein Advice Boosts Nutrition in Older Adults

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.