I read
that astronomers have read detected light from the earliest stars in the galaxy. To be exact: Light that shone 13 Billion years ago. The astronomers used a technique called ‘gravitational lensing’ (using gravity of nearby objects to magnify the light from distant objects) to zoom in on 6 galaxies.
The BBC article has some amazing photos of those galaxies. However, the picture above shows and tells the complex story of galaxies that are far away: in a historical sense, or say, past tense. I find this fascinating and I’m not sure why I do. Earlier, I mentioned Eta Carinae: the 7,500 light year away star is about to ‘super nova anytime’ in the past (Or as the Register so appropriately says ‘New Pics of an Old explosion’1).
Related: Astronomers detect water (vapour) on exo-planet
1 This could be a great name for a movie…