Get ready, space enthusiasts! 🚀 China's FAST telescope, the world's largest radio telescope, just hit the cosmic jackpot! Located in the lush mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province, this giant eye on the sky has discovered a plethora of gas-rich galaxies billions of light-years away. 🌠
This groundbreaking discovery, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Friday, is shaking up our understanding of the universe. The galaxies spotted by FAST are so distant that their radio waves have been traveling towards us for nearly the entire age of our solar system! 😲 Talk about a long-distance call!
Lead astronomer Xi Hongwei from the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), alongside a team from Australia, the United States, and Russia, unveiled properties of six new high-redshift galaxies. These galaxies are brimming with atomic hydrogen gas—the raw material for star formation. 🌟
\"This new sample lets us dive deeper into how galaxies evolve over time,\" the team shared. \"With more data, we'll refine our knowledge of cosmic formation and evolution.\" 📚✨
Hydrogen, the universe's most abundant element, is the fuel that powers star creation in galaxies like our very own Milky Way. But detecting it in distant galaxies has been a challenge due to the limitations of previous telescopes. FAST's incredible sensitivity is changing the game! 🏆
\"We've embarked on the FAST Ultra-Deep Survey, a blind search for neutral hydrogen,\" said Peng Bo, a scientist at the NAOC. \"These finds highlight the unmatched capabilities of the world's largest radio telescope.\" 🔭
And the excitement doesn't stop there! \"So far, the new FAST survey has uncovered over 100 galaxies up to 5 billion light-years away,\" Peng added. \"We expect that number to soar beyond 1,000!\" 🌌🚀
This cosmic treasure hunt is just beginning, and who knows what other secrets the universe has in store? Stay tuned, future astronomers! 🔮✨
Reference(s):
China's FAST telescope finds an abundance of distant gas-rich galaxies
cgtn.com
