A team of astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have spotted HD1, the farthest galaxy detected to date. It’s located approximately 13.5 billion light-years away and is may be forming stars at an incredible rate, possibly even home to Population III stars, the universe’s very first stars. The galaxy appears to be very bright in ultraviolet light, which could mean that some energetic processes are still occurring there or some billions of years ago. Read more for a video and additional information.
Another explanation to explain its luminosity is a possible supermassive black hole since such an object would be engulfing enormous amounts of gas, thus emitting high energy photons around the region. If this were to hold true, it would mark the earliest supermassive black hole known to mankind, observed much closer in time to the Big Bang compared to the current record-holder.
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Answering questions about the nature of a source so far away can be challenging. It’s like guessing the nationality of a ship from the flag it flies, while being faraway ashore, with the vessel in the middle of a gale and dense fog. One can maybe see some colors and shapes of the flag, but not in their entirety. It’s ultimately a long game of analysis and exclusion of implausible scenarios,” said Fabio Pacucci, lead author of the MNRAS study.
