Oct 20 2001
From The Space Library
Scientists reported that, for the first time, they had used an innovative technique known as gravitational lensing, combined with data that telescopes had obtained, to observe light from extremely distant stars, which may have formed in the early stages of the universe’s creation. Gravitational lensing is a technique of detecting distant and otherwise unobservable objects by observing light from these distant background objects, while the gravity of galaxy clusters in the viewable foreground magnifies the background objects’ emitted light. The team of scientists, led by Richard S. Ellis of the California Institute of Technology, had combined the natural magnifying power of galaxy cluster Abell 2218 with observations from the HST and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to execute the technique successfully. As a result, the team had been able to detect faint light emitted by a small cluster of stars located nearly 13.4 billion light-years from Earth. Based on detectable characteristics of the stars, the scientists believed that a star cluster in its early formation stages had produced the detected light, and that, during the early formation of the universe, the infant star cluster may have combined with other star groups to create galaxies. (Richard Ellis et al., “A Faint Star-Forming System Viewed Through the Lensing Cluster Abell 2218: First Light at z ~ 5.6?” Astrophysical Journal Letters 560, no. 2 (20 October 2001): L119–L122; William Harwood, “Pre-Galactic Star Cloud Is Discovered,” Washington Post, 6 October 2001.)
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