Oldest known galaxy discovered by Hubble

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The Hubble telescope has spotted the universe’s oldest known galaxy, a 13.2-billion-year-old formation that could tell scientists about the early periods of the universe.

Current estimates place the universe’s age at 13.7 billion years, meaning this galaxy was formed only — only! — 500 million years after our universe was formed.

The galaxy only ever reached the Hubble’s lens due to an unusual interstellar phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Galaxy clusters generate a huge gravitational pull, which can sometimes bend and magnify light. In this case, galaxy cluster Abell 2218 magnified the light from this extremely old, distant galaxy so that Hubble could spot it.

See the story at Discovery News.