Text 6. THE “OLD LADY” OF THE UNIVERSE

Japanese scientists discover the oldest of the known galaxies

Small wonder that the historic find is in the Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair) constellation, somewhere between the Hunting Dogs and the Virgin. That part of the Universe contains the northern galaxy pole with a fantastic concentration of various galaxies. This is the place to look for the astronomical superlatives: the biggest, the oldest, the newest, the brightest, the most solid, etc. The galaxy owes its name to a perfectly factual character, the wife of Pharaoh Ptolemy III (3d century B.C.), who donated her luxuriant hair to the Temple of Venus in honor of her husband's victory. When her gift disappeared, antique astronomers hastened to soothe the lady with tales of Zeus taking her hair to heaven.

Modern scientists used state-of-the-art instruments and managed to figure out that their find had been formed 900 million years later than the Universe itself.

This is a perfect confirmation of old astronomic theories that put the oldest galaxies' age at 1/15 of the age of the Universe, which is currently believed to be 13.5 to 14.5 billion years.

The Japanese have been able to make their discovery thanks to the powerful telescope named Subaru (The Pleiades), in the National Astronomical Observatory on the top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, which is the highest island mountain in the world rising to over 4,000m above sea level. The telescope took eight years to build, from 1991 to 1999. Subaru has already provided Japanese astronomers with singularly accurate pictures of Uranium, its ring system and main satellites, and allowed them to watch anomalous phenomena involving protostars and the emergence of supernovas.

But why should scientists be so thrilled about these astronomical "old ladies," including their latest discovery? Especially since it does not seem to have much longer to live: Before long this galaxy may be replaced by a black hole. Apparently, it is precisely old galactic entities that provide the best opportunity for studying the way of post-Big Bang galaxy clustering and the first such clusters emerging out of the gas the Big Bang produced.

(Moscow News, April, 2003)

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