|
|
Article: Two Primeval Galaxies Believed Detected; Objects Sighted by Graduate Student Appear to Be 95% of the Way Back to `Big Bang'
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 14, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
|
One night last spring, a young graduate student aimed a new
instrument at a random patch of sky and found what appear to be
primeval galaxies 17 billion light years away-farther away and
farther back in time than any objects previously observed.
That distance is about 95 percent of the way back to the time of
the so-called Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created all
matter and radiation in the universe. The finding is significantly
older than the oldest previously sighted object, a quasar, announced
just last month. Quasars are mysterious, star-like objects that emit
powerful electromagnetic radiation.
The finding, if confirmed, will overturn leading theories of how
galaxies ...