New most distant object

[ToSeek]

13.6 billion light years away (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992046)

[Hale_Bopp]

There still is some debate about this object. It's redshift of 6.56 was obtained from one spectral line that they assume to be the Lyman alpha line. If this is a young, star forming galaxy, that's a good bet since they have strong lyman alpha emission. However, there is still some debate over this galaxy. I hope they can nail down another line or two and settle it. It's hard to get a spectra for such a distant object, even with the help of a gravitational lens.

Rob

[Wally]

On 2002-03-15 09:57, Hale_Bopp wrote:
There still is some debate about this object. It's redshift of 6.56 was obtained from one spectral line that they assume to be the Lyman alpha line. If this is a young, star forming galaxy, that's a good bet since they have strong lyman alpha emission. However, there is still some debate over this galaxy. I hope they can nail down another line or two and settle it. It's hard to get a spectra for such a distant object, even with the help of a gravitational lens.

Rob


Sounds like a classic "catch-22" senario. . . using a spectral line that's common to young galaxies to prove it's one of the oldest around. Best of luck to 'em!