z8_GND_5296: New galaxy 'most distant' yet discovered

October 26, 2013

Scientists have discovered the most distant galaxy yet which is located at about 30 billion light-years away. It was detected using the Hubble Space Telescope. The distant galaxy has been named z8_GND_5296.

How did the astronomers calculated the distance of the most distant galaxy “z8_GND_5296”?

Astronomers analysed its color to measure how far it is located from the Earth. As Universe is expanding and everything is moving away from us, light waves are stretched. This makes objects look redder than they actually are. Astronomers rate this apparent colour-change on a scale that is called redshift. They found that this galaxy has a redshift of 7.51, beating the previous record-holder, which had a redshift of 7.21. This makes it the most distant galaxy ever found.

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