A galaxy twenty billion years old has given me courage.
Quentin finds out more about what may be the oldest galaxy ever seen.
Now they have observed an apparently old galaxy out where there should be nothing but emerging galaxies of young stars, if current theories are correct.
The excitement among astronomers was heightened by the discovery, announced last month, of the oldest and most distant galaxy yet known.
The vast majority of old galaxies look like train wrecks.
Time flows differently two hundred thousand light-years from my old galaxy.
However as these models imply, they are old galaxies having formed most of their stellar mass several billion (gigayear) ago.
When discovered in 2006, it was the oldest and most distant galaxy ever found, at redshift 6.96.
At the time of the announcement, it was the oldest galaxy found and exceeded the previous distance record holder by roughly 150 million light years.
With the revision of the distance, it again became the oldest galaxy found as of December 12, 2012.