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A team of scientists led by astronomers at the University of California, Riverside has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover the long-suspected underlying population of galaxies that produced the bulk of new stars during the universe's early years.
The galaxies are the smallest, faintest, and most numerous galaxies ever seen in the remote universe, and were captured by Hubble deep exposures taken in ultraviolet light.
Study results appeared in the Jan. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal and were presented Jan. 7 at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC.
The 58 young, diminutive galaxies spied by Hubble were photographed as they appeared more than 10 billion years ago, during the heyday of star birth.
The newly discovered galaxies are 100 times more numerous than their more massive cousins. But they are 100 times fainter than galaxies detected in previous deep-field surveys of the early universe.
These galaxies would normally be too faint for Hubble to see. But the astronomers were able to detect them by teaming Hubble with a natural zoom lens in space, produced by the gravity of Abell 1689, a giant foreground galaxy cluster.
The cluster is so massive that it magnifies the light from faraway galaxies behind it due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, where the curvature of space acts like a giant funhouse mirror to stretch and brighten distant objects.
“There's always been a concern that we've only found the brightest of the distant galaxies,” said study leader Brian Siana, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. “The bright galaxies, however, represent the tip of the iceberg. We believe most of the stars forming in the early universe are occurring in galaxies we normally can't see at all. Now we have found those 'unseen' galaxies, and we're really confident that we're seeing the rest of the iceberg.”
Siana's team believes it has completed the census of galaxies at an epoch when the universe was roughly 3.4 billion years old. If this sample of galaxies is representative of the entire population at this early time, then the majority of new stars formed in these small galaxies.
“Though these galaxies are very faint, their increased numbers means that they account for the majority of star formation during this epoch,” said team member Anahita Alavi, a Ph.D. graduate student in Siana's lab, and the first author of the research paper.
Siana explained that uncovering these galaxies also helps bolster claims that hot stars in small galaxies pumped out enough radiation to ionize hydrogen by stripping off electrons.
This process, called “reionization,” occurred about 13 billion years ago, within the first billion years after the Big Bang. Reionization made the universe transparent to light, allowing astronomers to look far back into time.
“Although the galaxies in our sample existed a few billion years after reionization, it's presumed that galaxies like these, or possibly some of these galaxies, did play a big role in reionization,” Siana said.
The early galaxies do not look like the majestic spiral and elliptical galaxies seen in our galactic neighborhood.
“The gravitational lensing stretches out the apparent shape of the distant galaxies, resolving them,” Alavi said. “Without the lensing, some of the galaxies would be just point sources to Hubble. We now have an idea about their sizes that previously were impossible to measure because the galaxies were unresolved.”
The Hubble analysis shows the galaxies are small, irregularly shaped objects measuring just a few thousand light-years across.
“Even when fully mature, these galaxies will be about one-tenth to one-hundredth the mass of our Milky Way,” Siana said. “Because they are undergoing a firestorm of star birth, their light is dominated by the ultraviolet glow of fledgling stars.”
The research team used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to search for faint, star-forming galaxies in ultraviolet light, a reliable tracer of star birth. The galaxies existed when the universe was undergoing a “baby boom” of star formation, estimated to have peaked between 9 billion and 12 billion years ago.
This strategy of surveying large numbers of background galaxies with deep observations of lensing clusters is being used in a new three-year Hubble survey, called the Frontier Fields. Hubble astronomers are using Hubble to exploit the magnification powers of six massive galaxy clusters in a hunt for small galaxies that existed more than 12 billion to 13 billion years ago.
The galaxies discovered in these lensing surveys will be prime targets for the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch in 2018. Through spectroscopy, Webb will divide the light from each galaxy into its constituent colors, yielding information on the star birth and chemical content of each galaxy.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A event set for Saturday, Jan. 25, will raise money to help a city employee injured in a fall this past October.
Lake County Youth Services is sponsoring the dinner and dance fundraiser to benefit Miguel Mosqueda at the Clearlake Senior Community Center at 3245 Bowers Ave.
Proceeds will assist Mosqueda and his family with costs associated with injuries he suffered while on the job with Clearlake Public Works.
Mosqueda has been a part of the Public Works crew since 1995. He spent a lot of his time caring for the city's parks, where he became familiar with many members of the community.
In October 2013, he suffered a paralyzing fall from the roof of the youth center building.
Clay VanHousen said Mosqueda is always reliable, pleasant to work with and well-liked by his coworkers.
He said collaboration by Mosqueda's coworkers and friends to host the fundraiser is widespread.
“Everyone is pitching in,” VanHousen said. “We hate to see this happen to anyone, especially Miguel. He was getting close to thinking about retirement.”
He added, “It's just a sad deal for us all – and it makes us realize anything can happen to anyone of us, anytime.”
The event will include a silent auction plus a bonus $1 auction.
Doors open with drinks at 5 p.m.
A chicken and ribs dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and dancing to the music of “Without a Net” starts at 7 p.m.
Tickets cost $25 each and are available by calling Clearlake City Hall at 707-994-8201.
Email Denise Rockenstein at
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake High School Booster’s Club is continuing its efforts to raise money to be able to purchase and install stadium lights on the high school athletic field.
The group is hosting the sixth annual Lights of Love Valentine dinner/dance on Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Sons of Italy hall, 2817 Highway 20 in Nice.
Upper Lake is the only high school in Lake County without stadium lights. Acquisition of these lights will allow the school to host evening games, and to increase school spirit and pride.
The Feb. 15 event will feature a buffet-style dinner menu consisting of tri tip or chicken, served from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
A silent auction will take place from 5 to 8 p.m., and an indoor poker run will be played from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Beatz Workin Band will provide dance music from 8 to 11 p.m. Beer or wine will be available for purchase.
Tickets are $25 each or $250 for a reserved table for eight.
Organizers also are seeking prizes for the silent auction. Monetary donations to the stadium lighting effort are welcome.
For more information contact Ron Raetz at 707-275-2824 or Ana Santana at 707-342-9696.
LOCH LOMOND, Calif. – The service of a search warrant which involved two separate residences has resulted in one arrest and the seizure of marijuana, firearms and cash.
Robert Harold Goldsmith, 75, of Loch Lomond, was arrested following the search warrant services, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Brooks said narcotics officers secured a search warrant for a residence located in the 12000 block of Black Oak Drive in Loch Lomond and a residence located in the 10000 block of Rosa Trail in Kelseyville on Wednesday.
At 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force served the warrant at the first residence in Loch Lomond, Brooks said. Detectives entered the residence and detained Goldsmith.
During the search detectives noticed one of the bedrooms was set up for drying and processing marijuana. Brooks said the garage was sectioned off with three separate rooms to accommodate the different stages of growth. There was a vegetation room containing non flowering plants, a flowering room which contained mature plants and a clone room.
He said detectives located and eradicated 746 marijuana plants and seized four firearms from the Black Oak Drive address. They also located and seized $3,693, which is pending asset forfeiture proceedings.
Detectives served the warrant on the Rosa Trail address, which was also under the control of Goldsmith, Brooks said.
During a search of the residence detectives noticed the garage was sectioned off with a sophisticated vegetation room, flowering room and a cloning room, he said.
Brooks said the detectives located and eradicated 491 marijuana plants from the three rooms and seized 25 pounds of processed marijuana. Detectives also located and seized two firearms from the residence.
Lake County Code Enforcement assisted the detectives by red-tagging both residences for unsafe and unpermitted electrical wiring.
Goldsmith was arrested for cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and for being armed while in the commission of a felony, Brooks said.
Goldsmith was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked, with bail set at $25,000. Jail records indicated he later posted the required percentage of bail and was released.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) on Friday reached agreement on legislative language that will help protect Americans from chemical spills that threaten drinking water.
This bill, the Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act, brings together in one place the tools to provide oversight of chemical facilities.
It strengthens states’ ability to prevent chemical spills like the Jan. 9 spill that contaminated the water supply in nine West Virginia counties and impacted more than 300,000 West Virginians.
Senators Manchin and Boxer plan to introduce the legislation when Congress returns later this month.
The legislation includes common sense measures designed to ensure industrial facilities are properly inspected by state officials and both the chemical industry and emergency response agencies are prepared for future chemical incidents or emergencies.
Key principles in the Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act include:
- Requiring regular state inspections of above-ground chemical storage facilities;
- Requiring industry to develop state-approved emergency response plans that meet at least minimum guidelines established in this bill;
- Allowing states to recoup costs incurred from responding to emergencies; and
- Ensuring drinking water systems have the tools and information to respond to emergencies.
“Today, nearly 150,000 West Virginians still cannot use their tap water and many more are concerned about the long-term effects of this chemical spill,” Sen. Manchin said. “No West Virginian or American should have to go through something like this again, and that is why I plan to introduce common sense legislation to make sure all chemicals are appropriately monitored. We can work to improve the safety of Americans by ensuring that chemicals are properly managed, while also balancing the positive impact the chemical industry has made to our country.”
Sen. Boxer said, “This legislation protects children and families across the nation by providing the tools necessary to help prevent dangerous chemical spills that threaten their drinking water.”
“The fact that there was a lack of regulations which allowed this particular storage facility to go uninspected for so many years is absurd,” Sen. Rockefeller said. “I’m encouraged we are taking these steps to bring some accountability to industry that will help protect West Virginia families and our state’s economy.”
Are we there yet?
One of the fastest spacecraft ever built – NASA's New Horizons – is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day.
Launched in 2006, it has been in flight longer than some missions last, and it is nearing its destination: Pluto.
“The encounter begins next January,” said Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute and the mission’s principal investigator. “We’re less than a year away.”
Closest approach is scheduled for July 2015 when New Horizons flies only 10,000 kilometers from Pluto, but the spacecraft will be busy long before that date.
The first step, in January 2015, is an intensive campaign of photography by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or “LORRI.” This will help mission controllers pinpoint Pluto's location, which is uncertain by a few thousand kilometers.
“LORRI will photograph the planet against known background star fields,” explained Stern. “We’ll use the images to refine Pluto’s distance from the spacecraft, and then fire the engines to make any necessary corrections.”
At first, Pluto and its large moon Charon will be little more than distant pinpricks – “a couple of fat pixels,” said Stern – but soon they will swell into full-fledged worlds.
By late April 2015, the approaching spacecraft will be taking pictures of Pluto that surpass the best images from Hubble.
By closest approach in July 2015, a whole new world will open up to the spacecraft’s cameras. If New Horizons flew over Earth at the same altitude, it could see individual buildings and their shapes.
Stern is looking forward to one of the most exciting moments of the Space Age.
“Humankind hasn't had an experience like this – an encounter with a new planet – in a long time,” he said. “Everything we see on Pluto will be a revelation.”
He likens New Horizons to Mariner 4, which flew past Mars in July 1965.
At the time, many people on Earth, even some scientists, thought the Red Planet was a relatively gentle world, with water and vegetation friendly to life. Instead, Mariner 4 revealed a desiccated wasteland of haunting beauty.
New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto will occur almost exactly 50 years after Mariner 4’s flyby of Mars – and it could shock observers just as much.
Other than a few indistinct markings seen from afar by Hubble, Pluto’s landscape is totally unexplored.
Although some astronomers call Pluto a “dwarf” planet, Stern said there’s nothing small about it.
“If you drove a car around the equator of Pluto, the odometer would rack up almost 5,000 miles – as far as from Manhattan to Moscow,” Stern said.
Such a traveler might encounter icy geysers, craters, clouds, mountain ranges, rilles and valleys, alongside alien landforms no one has ever imagined.
“There is a real possibility that New Horizons will discover new moons and rings as well,” said Stern.
Yes, Pluto could have rings. Already, Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.
Numerical simulations show that meteoroids striking those satellites could send debris into orbit, forming a ring system that waxes and wanes over time in response to changes in bombardment.
“We’re flying into the unknown,” said Stern, “and there is no telling what we might find.”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.