Hubble managed to capture a distant galaxy that, according to scientists, seemed impossible to observe. The discovery provides new clues about one of the most important periods in the early history of the universe.
The observations from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed an intense emission of ultraviolet light coming from the galaxy MXDFz4.4, a signal that helps to understand how the enormous cloud of hydrogen that covered the cosmos in its early times dissipated.
What Hubble discovered in the galaxy MXDFz4.4
The galaxy MXDFz4.4 existed approximately 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang and contains a compact cluster of young, hot, and massive stars.
According to researchers, this group of stars emits a large amount of ultraviolet light capable of penetrating the hydrogen gas that dominated the universe at that time.
The detection surprised astronomers because it was considered extremely difficult to observe this type of radiation coming from such ancient galaxies.
Why this galaxy was considered impossible to detect
During the early times of the universe, large amounts of neutral hydrogen blocked the ultraviolet light emitted by the brightest objects.
This phenomenon made it difficult to identify the sources responsible for producing the radiation necessary to penetrate that cosmic barrier.
Ilias Goovaerts from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) explained that observing a galaxy like MXDFz4.4 was considered practically impossible due to the density of that gas.
