American space research organization – NASA discovered a new galaxy cluster at a distance that is so far away that it is difficult for man to even understand the existence of such far-away regions.
When NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory peeped out into deep space it spotted a blurred presence of a far-away galaxy. And it was calculated at a distance of 11.1 billion light years away.
That is, in a region of space which can be reached only when a body travels at the speed of light for 11.1 billion years through uncharted space!
Image of CL J1001+0220 Image courtesy: NASA.gov
And it is an all time record as man was never able to look deep into such great distances in the past.
Hubble’s space telescope had made headlines earlier this year when it spotted a stellar clutter located in the center of the galaxy Abell S1063, which is relatively 4 billion light years away from us.
For scientists, it is a remarkable sight as not only because the galaxy cluster is farthest ever observed but it is a fantastic stellar nursery, which was giving birth to stars at an unprecedented rate.
Now that is indeed a scene for man today. However, it should also remembered that what the scientists has seen of the galactic clusters is as it was 11.1 billion years ago!
Since the galaxy is located 11.1 billion light years away from us, it will help researchers in developing a better understanding of how galaxies evolved in the past.
Chandra X-ray Observatory is a space observatory launched by NASA on July, 1999. It is nearly 100 times more sensitive to X-rays when compared to all other previous detectors. The telescope is named after astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
