Scientists think they've spotted the farthest galaxy in the universe

[admin]

Astronomers have peered out into the vast expanse and spotted what they think is the farthest (and oldest) galaxy ever observed.

Scientists think they've spotted the farthest galaxy in the universe : Read more

 

[Chem721]

Oddly, the article does not provide any data from the Keck I! Had to look it up from what was in the story (1).

The data confirms the previous estimate from Hubble, published in 2016 (2). It provides the same redshift, yielding a distance of 13.4 Gly. Perhaps Kashikawa did not want to note that they only confirmed previous results? At any rate, it would appear that GN-z11 retains its "most distant object" status.

Based on casual searches, it appears that only two quasars have been observed in the first 800 million years post-BB. All other objects are galaxies, and apparently without AGNs.

It seems like there should be more quasars in the early universe compared to so many galaxies. But since quasars are so "bright", it would not appear to involve difficulty in detection.

Lacking significant background in these observations, anyone know if there is a peak "time-frame" in quasar "formation"?


"Astronomers Spot Farthest Galaxy Known in the Universe"

1. https://keckobservatory.org/farthest-galaxy/


"A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at z=11.1 Measured with Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy"

2. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJ...819..129O

Since this gives me a chance to bring up one of my favorite topics, primordial black holes (PBHs), the below reference recently found is very interesting (3). A group at the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute of Technology, published a related paper on this very topic in Nature Astronomy. Thought I would append it for those who wish to follow the evolving theories on PBHs. It is significant to note that they can never be ruled out, their formation is within theoretical constraints, and provide an alternative to the involvement of population III stars as the major source of metals in the early universe by seeding galaxy formation at a very early stage. Perhaps GN-z11 was seeded by one of these PBHs in the early universe, as were many others even earlier, which have not been yet been detected.


"Observational signatures of massive black hole formation in the early Universe"

3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0569-y?WT.feed_name=subjects_space-physics