Photo by Nick Krug <\/p>\n
Kansas University assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, Gregory Rudnick gives a lecture on Friday, May 3, 2013 in Malott Hall. <\/p>\n
Kansas University associate professor Gregory Rudnick was glad when the recent discovery of a distant galaxy in the process of forming made the news. <\/p>\n
The mind-blowing factor of such discoveries always helps invigorate the publics interest in astronomy, and thats a good thing, said Rudnick, who teaches physics and astronomy at KU. <\/p>\n
In this case, astronomers for the first time caught a glimpse of the earliest stages of massive galaxy construction, NASA announced last month. NASA described the site, nicknamed \"Sparky,\" as a dense galactic core blazing with the light of millions of newborn stars that are forming at a ferocious rate. <\/p>\n
Now for the mind-blowing part. <\/p>\n
Sparky is so far away from us that light from it takes 11 billion years to reach the Earth talk about distant. <\/p>\n
By comparison, light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach us, and it is 93 million miles away from Earth, Rudnick said. <\/p>\n
When the light left this galaxy, the sun was not even born yet, Rudnick said. Its crazy-far away. <\/p>\n
Rudnick said he was on a team of scientists that helped discover similar galaxies that appeared to have already finished forming, which they documented in a 2013 paper. But he said information like how the objects looked before forming and exactly how far away they were was still a mystery. <\/p>\n
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KU teacher: 'Mind-blowing' discovery invigorates interest in astronomy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo by Nick Krug Kansas University assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, Gregory Rudnick gives a lecture on Friday, May 3, 2013 in Malott Hall. Kansas University associate professor Gregory Rudnick was glad when the recent discovery of a distant galaxy in the process of forming made the news. The mind-blowing factor of such discoveries always helps invigorate the publics interest in astronomy, and thats a good thing, said Rudnick, who teaches physics and astronomy at KU Continue reading