December 4, 2015

The galaxy cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope with the galaxy nicknamed Tayna in the inset (Image NASA, ESA, and L. Infante (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile))

An article published in the journal “Astrophysical Journal” describes the discovery of the faintest galaxy in the early universe. According to this study, this galaxy was born when the universe was “only” about 400 million years old and for this reason was nicknamed Tayna, which means “first born” in the Aymara language. To detect its light the gravitational lensing effect of a galaxy cluster was used. That allowed to capture the extremely dim light of a total of 22 ancient galaxies using the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.