PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

AAS meeting highlights several new Hubble science findings

2014-01-08
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Lynn Chandler
Lynn.chandler-1@nasa.gov
301-286-2806
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
AAS meeting highlights several new Hubble science findings

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing a new perspective on the remote universe, including new views of young and distant galaxies bursting with stars. Scientists described the findings Tuesday in a news conference sponsored by the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

Highlighted in the briefing were three discoveries -- four unusually bright galaxies as they appeared 13 billion years ago, the deepest image ever obtained of a galaxy cluster, and a sampling of galaxies thought to be responsible for most of the stars we see today.

The ultra-bright, young galaxies, discovered using data from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, are bursting with star formation activity, which accounts for their brilliance. The brightest one is forming stars approximately 50 times faster than our Milky Way galaxy does today. These fledgling galaxies are only one-twentieth the size of the Milky Way, but they probably contain about 1 billion stars crammed together.

Although Hubble has previously identified galaxies at this early epoch, astronomers were surprised to find objects that are about 10 to 20 times more luminous than anything seen previously.

"These just stuck out like a sore thumb because they are far brighter than we anticipated," explained Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz. "There are strange things happening regardless of what these sources are. We're suddenly seeing luminous, massive galaxies quickly build up at such an early time. This was quite unexpected."

The galaxies were first detected with Hubble. Its sharp images are crucial to finding such distant galaxies and enabled the astronomers to measure their star-formation rates and sizes. Using Spitzer, the astronomers were able to estimate the stellar masses by measuring the total stellar luminosity of the galaxies.

"This is the first time scientists were able to measure an object's mass at such a huge distance," said Pascal Oesch of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. "It's a fabulous demonstration of the synergy between Hubble and Spitzer."

The result bodes well for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, currently in development. Scientists anticipate using Webb to look even farther back in time to find young, growing galaxies as they existed only a few hundred million years after the universe began in theorized big bang.

An unprecedented long distance view of the universe comes from an ambitious collaborative project with Hubble called The Frontier Fields. It is the longest and deepest exposure obtained to date of a cluster of galaxies, and shows some of the faintest and youngest galaxies ever detected. The image contains several hundred galaxies as they looked 3.5 billion years ago.

Appearing in the foreground of the image is Abell 2744, a massive galaxy cluster located in the constellation Sculptor. The immense gravity in Abell 2744 is being used as a lens to warp space and brighten and magnify images of more distant background galaxies. The more distant galaxies appear as they did longer than 12 billion years ago, not long after the big bang.

The Hubble exposure reveals almost 3,000 of these background galaxies interleaved with images of hundreds of foreground galaxies in the cluster. Their images not only appear brighter, but also smeared, stretched and duplicated across the field. Because of the gravitational lensing phenomenon, the background galaxies are magnified to appear as much as 10 to 20 times larger than they would normally appear. Furthermore, the faintest of these highly magnified objects is 10 to 20 times fainter than any galaxy observed previously. Without the boost from gravitational lensing, the many background galaxies would be invisible.

The Hubble exposure will be combined with images from Spitzer and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to provide new insight into the origin and evolution of galaxies and their accompanying black holes.

Hubble also uncovered a substantial population of 58 young, diminutive galaxies that scientists long suspected were responsible for producing a majority of stars now present in the cosmos during the universe's early years.

Deep exposures in ultraviolet light, made with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, revealed a sampling of galaxies that existed more than 10 billion years ago, when the universe was roughly 3.4 billion years old. They are the smallest, faintest, galaxies seen in the remote universe to date. A census of galaxies existing at the time indicates these small, faint galaxies are 100 times more abundant in the universe than their more massive cousins.

"There's always been a concern that we've only found the brightest of the distant galaxies," said Brian Siana of the University of California at Riverside. "The bright galaxies, however, represent the tip of the iceberg. We believe most of the stars forming in the early universe are occurring in galaxies we normally can't see at all. Now we have found those 'unseen' galaxies, and we're really confident that we're seeing the rest of the iceberg."

Normally too faint for Hubble to see, these galaxies were revealed through gravitational lensing focused on a massive galaxy cluster known as Abell 1689 in the constellation Ursa Major. The cluster magnified light emitted by distant objects behind it, causing the newly discovered galaxies to appear bigger and brighter. If this sample is representative of the entire population at the time, then the majority of new stars formed in such small, unseen galaxies.

"Though these galaxies are very faint, their increased numbers mean that they account for the majority of star formation during this epoch," said team member Anahita Alavi, also of the University of California at Riverside.

The astronomers were surprised to find the deeper they looked with Hubble, the more faint galaxies they found.

"Our goal with these observations was not to find a large number of galaxies, but to find much fainter galaxies," said Alavi.



INFORMATION:

For images and more information about the ultra-bright young galaxies, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2014/05

To see more images and information about The Frontier Fields campaign, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2014/01

For images and more information about Abell 1689, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2014/07

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Nano-capsules show potential for more potent chemoprevention

2014-01-08
Nano-capsules show potential for more potent chemoprevention Researchers at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have discovered a more effective drug delivery system using nanotechnology that could one day significantly affect cancer prevention. The ...

Nutrition guidelines needed for full-service restaurant chains

2014-01-08
Nutrition guidelines needed for full-service restaurant chains According to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Philadelphia, PA, January 8, 2014 – Food prepared away from home is typically higher in calories and lower in nutrition than ...

Reactivation of the AKT survival pathway by ERK1/2

2014-01-07
Reactivation of the AKT survival pathway by ERK1/2 Why inhibition of both pathways is important In the study by Toulany et al., it was demonstrated for the first time that long term treatment with inhibitors of PI3K (as it is performed clinically) results in a reactivation ...

Inverse design: New route to design a practical invisibility cloak

2014-01-07
Inverse design: New route to design a practical invisibility cloak With the emergence of metamaterials and transformation optics in the past few years, invisibility has become a scientific possibility that has attracted sustainable research interest. Recently, a review ...

Jumping snails left grounded in future oceans

2014-01-07
Jumping snails left grounded in future oceans Sea snails that leap to escape their predators may soon lose their extraordinary jumping ability because of rising human carbon dioxide emissions, a team of international scientists ...

Nanoplasmonics: Towards efficient light harvesting

2014-01-07
Nanoplasmonics: Towards efficient light harvesting The control of light is vital to many applications, including imaging, communications, sensing, cancer treatment, and even welding processes for automobile parts. Transformation optics is an emerging field that has revolutionized ...

Cancer Statistics 2014: Death rates continue to drop

2014-01-07
Cancer Statistics 2014: Death rates continue to drop Progress most rapid for middle-aged African American men ATLANTA – Jan. 7, 2014–The annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society finds steady declines in cancer death rates for the past two decades ...

Researchers discover molecule behind the benefits of exercise

2014-01-07
Researchers discover molecule behind the benefits of exercise While it's clear that exercise can improve health and longevity, the changes that occur in the body to facilitate these benefits are less clear. Now researchers publishing in the January issue of Cell Press journal ...

How fat might be controlled through the body clock

2014-01-07
How fat might be controlled through the body clock Australian researchers have shed more light on an underexplored aspect of the important brain-signaling system that controls appetite, body composition and energy use. Their findings suggest ...

Ketamine acts as antidepressant by boosting serotonin

2014-01-07
Ketamine acts as antidepressant by boosting serotonin PET molecular imaging of the brain reveals that ketamine may act as an antidepressant by boosting serotonin activity in brain areas involved in motivation Ketamine is a potent anesthetic employed in human and veterinary medicine, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Signs identified that precede sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in young people

Discovery of bacteria's defence against viruses becomes a piece of the puzzle against resistance

Pre-eclampsia is associated with earlier onset and higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors

Warwick astronomers discover doomed pair of spiralling stars on our cosmic doorstep

Soil conditions significantly increase rainfall in world’s megastorm hotspots

NK cells complexed with bispecific antibody yield high response rates in patients with lymphoma

Planetary health diet and mediterranean diet associated with similar survival and sustainability benefits

Singapore launches national standard to validate antimicrobial disinfectant products

Molecular stool test could improve detection of tuberculosis in adults with HIV

Suspected fibrocartilaginous embolus in Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus)

Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

[Press-News.org] AAS meeting highlights several new Hubble science findings