The HD1 galaxy

Scientists have recently discovered the farthest galaxy in the night sky, named HD1. Located at a distance of 13.5 billion light years away, the newly discovered galaxy was born only 330 million years after the Big Bang. It is being speculated that this galaxy may also house some exciting discoveries also- either Population 3 stars, the first stars to have come into existence after the big bang, or the earliest supermassive black holes ever discovered till now.

The HD1 galaxy is found in the extremely bright spectrum section of the ultraviolet light, which implies that a galaxy is producing stars at a high rate. However, analysis performed by the scientists showed that if HD1 were to be a starburst galaxy, it would essentially be producing 100 stars on average every year. Therefore, the team resorted to other possibilities to explain the ultraviolet nature of the galaxy.

One of the explanations for the HD1’s ultraviolet radiance is that the stars formed in this specific galaxy are different from the ones produced in modern galaxies. In modern galaxies, each star is made up of the recycled gases of previous generations. So, depending on the age of this galaxy, the stars in this galaxy are made of heavier elements.

A supermassive galaxy might also explain the unexplained galaxy’s ultraviolet brightness. If that were the case, then the supermassive galaxy would become the earliest known blackhole ever discovered.