Researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz (United States) have detected a galaxy with a redshift of approximately 10 , which corresponds to a time when the Universe was only 500 million years old . The data, which is published in the journal Nature , has been obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope thanks to the recent installation of the Wide Field Camera 3, and also reveals a rapid increase in the rate of star formation at this time.
The scientists, led by Rychard Bouwens, have used the Hubble data to find galaxies even older and fainter in light, with a redshift index of around 10. The research paid off by identifying a candidate galaxy with an index. of about 10.3. In addition, the researchers conclude that the rate of star formation increased by a factor of 10 between 500 and 600 million years after the Big Bang, implying that this was a time when galaxies evolved very quickly .
"When we launched Hubble more than 20 years ago, we could only dream that it would have the ability to make these kinds of discoveries and rewrite textbooks," said Charles Borden of NASA, who piloted the shuttle that put the popular space telescope. in orbit.
