One of the farthest star galaxies discovered by Indian astronomers

The Department of Space, the Indian government announced that the Indian astronomers have discovered one of the farthest star galaxies in the universe. The galaxy is called AUDFs01.

The Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh mentioned it as a matter of pride as India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory ‘AstroSat’ detected the extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.

The galaxy is estimated to be located 9.3 billion light-years away from the Earth. The finest discovery by the Indian astronomers has also been reported in the International Journal names ‘Nature Astronomy’ which publishes from Britain.

Discovery of farthest galaxy ‘AUDFs01’:

The galaxy has been discovered by a team of astronomers led by Dr. Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.

As per the official statement, India’s AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique accomplishment because of the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less that one on the Hubble Space Telescope of NASA in the US.

The Union Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh also congratulated the scientists for once again proving to the world that India’s capability in Space Technology has risen to a distinguished level.

How this latest discovery is important?

As per Dr. Somak Ray Chaudhary, Director of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the discovery is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the universe had ended and there was light in the universe. He added that we needed to know when this started but it has been very difficult to find the earliest sources of light.

Professor Shyam Tandon further contributes that the excellent spatial contribution and the high sensitivity is the tribute to the hard work of the UVIT core team of scientists for over a decade.

About AstroSat:

AstroSat is India’s first Space Observatory which has made the latest discovery. It was launched on September 28, 2015, by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during the first term of the Modi government.

The observatory was developed by a team led by Shyam Tandon, ex-Emeritus Professor of IUCAA, with complete support of ISRO.