Astronomers use X-ray magnifying lens to spot early-stage galaxy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-15 05:58:05|Editor: ZX

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Astronomers used a massive cluster of galaxies as an X-ray magnifying glass to spot a tiny dwarf galaxy in its very first stages of star formation nearly 9.4 billion years ago.

This is the first time that galaxy clusters have been used to magnify distant objects at X-ray wavelengths, according to the study published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Astronomers have seen a blue speck of an infant galaxy, about 1/10,000 the size of the Milky Way, in the midst of churning out its first stars. It appears to be a bright blue arc as the supermassive, cosmically short-lived objects were emitting high-energy X-rays, according to the study.

"It's this little blue smudge, meaning it's a very small galaxy that contains a lot of super-hot, very massive young stars that formed recently," said Matthew Bayliss, a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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[defacto7]

1. That formed recently? Hmm.