The kinematics of merging galaxies
Thursday, May 28, 2015 - 08:30
in Astronomy & Space
The unprecedented sensitivity of space telescopes has powered a revolution over the past decade in our understanding of galaxies in the young universe during its first billion years of existence. These primitive objects are so remote that their light has been traveling towards us for more than ninety percent of the age of the universe, but they could be detected by space observatories because they are intrinsically bright in the infrared. Their luminosity is almost surely the result of huge numbers of newly formed stars whose light warms the dust that then radiates at infrared wavelengths.