BBC News Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 July 2007, 17:10 GMT 18:10 UK
Astronomers claim galaxy record
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News
The detections were made at the Keck Observatory
Astronomers say they may have detected the light from some of the earliest stars to form in the Universe.
They have pictures of what appear to be very faint galaxies that shone more than 13 billion years ago, a mere 500 million years after the Big Bang.
The remarkable claim dramatically exceeds the current, broadly accepted record for the most distant detection.
....
Getting to this mark was a process of steady, incremental steps through redshifts in the lower-sixes and fives. The Caltech-led group has now suddenly jumped into the redshift region of eight to 10.
....
A refurbished Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be able to reach up to redshift 10; and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch early in the next decade, should be capable of redshift 15 observations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6292024.stm
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When the Webb telescope becomes operational it will either verify or falsify this latest observation, and even extend observations further closer to the alleged Big Bang and the birth of the earliest stars and galaxies, but it is already apparent that changes will have to be made to the Big Bang hypothesis to fit the latest observations.
Astronomers claim galaxy record
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News
The detections were made at the Keck Observatory
Astronomers say they may have detected the light from some of the earliest stars to form in the Universe.
They have pictures of what appear to be very faint galaxies that shone more than 13 billion years ago, a mere 500 million years after the Big Bang.
The remarkable claim dramatically exceeds the current, broadly accepted record for the most distant detection.
....
Getting to this mark was a process of steady, incremental steps through redshifts in the lower-sixes and fives. The Caltech-led group has now suddenly jumped into the redshift region of eight to 10.
....
A refurbished Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be able to reach up to redshift 10; and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch early in the next decade, should be capable of redshift 15 observations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6292024.stm
-----------------
When the Webb telescope becomes operational it will either verify or falsify this latest observation, and even extend observations further closer to the alleged Big Bang and the birth of the earliest stars and galaxies, but it is already apparent that changes will have to be made to the Big Bang hypothesis to fit the latest observations.