An article recently UPI.com from NASA announced that the Spitzer Telescope had come across something quite amazing.  Researchers from Texas A&M university working with the telescope discovered some very, very old galaxies, likely the oldest ever discovered.  These galaxies are thought to be 10 billion years old, which is only 4 billion years after when the 'Big Bang' and formation of the universe occurred.

The interesting aspect of the discovery is the comparison of galaxies at a time 4 billion years after the beginning of the Universe with present-day galaxies.   When the Universe was 4 billion years old, galaxies had been formed. Typically, galaxies formed at this time would be forming their first stars and would appear brighter, bluer and smaller. They would not have merged with other galaxies.

The discovered galaxies  are "enormous red galaxies ... containing 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way". The largest galaxies in the present-day Universe have grown massive because of repeated mergers of galaxies. Present-day red galaxies that appear red are dominated by stars that are far beyond formation, lived most of their active life and appear red.

It is interesting that astronomers are like archeologists as they spend there time looking at evidence of the past to understand the history.  In regards to these recently discovered older galaxies, scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory were amazed at how modern they looked.  This may be for many reasons, it could be some galaxies are more ahead of their time or there really are similarities of the past and present.  Also note that the galaxies that are being observed are very large, some 10 times larger and with 10 times as many stars as our Milky Way galaxy.

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Keep in mind that the power of the telescopes used by the scientists at places like JPL can capture huge amounts of light, which is what allow them to see such distance and faint objects.  Also, what they see today, is really what happened in the past since the time it takes for the light to reach the earth can be quite significant sometimes.  Yet it is interesting to read the discoveries that are being made on a daily basis by the most advanced and sophisticated scientists and telescopes in the world.

Great Images from a Telescope

The Spitzer - CalTech - JPL website is a great site to check out in general if you are looking for some incredible images from space.  The Spitzer space telescope has provided some incredible images of planets, galaxies, comets, asteroids, nebulae, and other cosmology.  Definitely worth spending some time on if you are an amateur astronomer.

Check it out!