Japanese astronomers believe they have discovered the most distant galaxy ever, using the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Hawaii.
The astronomers believe the galaxy they have discovered is 12.91bn light years away. A light year is about 6 trillion miles. It's the distance that light travels in a year and seeing distant galaxies is akin to looking back in time. The optical/infrared telescopes used for this discovery are in Hawaii's Mauna Kea, which is the world's largest observatory for optical, infrared and sub millimeter astronomy and is 4,200 meter-high. This research will be published in the Astrophysical Journal on June 20.
So far, the latest consensus is that the universe began 13.7bn years ago. Richard Ellis, an influential expert in cosmology and galaxy information of the California Institute of Technology believe the last work sounds more convincing than some other galaxy discoveries. In 2010 and 2011, a French team and a team from California claimed to have discovered galaxies 13.1bn and 13.2bn light years away respectively, using the Hubble Space Telescope. The findings were published in the journal Nature but the teams haven't yet confirmed their findings using other methods. However, in the case of the Japanese astronomers, Ellis said their claim is more "watertight" as they have used methods that everyone can agree on.
However, Ellis also said that the team has to confirm its discoveries using other methods. Astronomers are now using the most powerful telescopes available to unveil the mysteries of the universe.
Takatoshi Shibuya is the leader of the research team of Japanese astronomers. He is from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan. Dr. Nobunari Kashikawa and Dr. Masanori Iye from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and Dr. Kazuaki Ota from Kyoto University are also part of the team.
