Astronomers find hidden galaxies at the edge of space and time

A team of researchers unintentionally discovered two hidden galaxies at the frontier of space and time.

A group of scientists discovered and has now identified two hidden galaxies at the frontier of space and time.

Yoshinobu Fudamoto, an astronomer from Waseda University's Research Institute for Science and Engineering and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), led the team that made the discovery using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. ALMA is an astronomical interferometer made up of 66 radio telescopes that can see through dusty conditions and over extremely long distances.

The scientists discovered the two new galaxies while watching two target galaxies called REBELS-12 and REBELS-29. The scientists discovered strong emissions hundreds of light-years away from the target galaxies. This discovery prompted the researchers to conduct additional observations, which resulted in the identification of two galaxies known as REBELS-12-2 and REBELS-29-2. These galaxies are obscured by a cloud of cosmic dust and are not visible in ultraviolet or optical light.

Researchers believe the newly discovered galaxies developed only 800 million years after the universe's inception 13.8 billion years ago.