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A FLEDGLING star system spotted at the edge of the visible Universe could
reveal secrets about the early evolution of the cosmos. Astronomers were only
able to see the faint galaxy because the gravity of other galaxies in front of
it focused the starlight.

Astronomers have found many objects around 13 billion light years away that
emitted their light when the Universe was only a billion years old. However,
their telescopes usually only see spectacularly bright objects, such as powerful
quasars, over such vast distances.

But now astronomers say they鈥檝e found a much more elusive superdistant
object. Using the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope, a
team led by Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena
saw the faint traces of hydrogen heated by stars forming in a faint galaxy 13.4
billion light years away.

The galaxy is much fainter than the brightest quasars, but it was visible
thanks to an intervening galaxy cluster called Abell 2218. This cluster鈥檚
gravity bent and focused light from the infant stars鈥攁 process called
gravitational lensing鈥攚hich made the galaxy appear 30 times brighter.

The discovery could bring us closer to understanding the early history of the
Universe; one piece of the puzzle is knowing when the first galaxies formed.
鈥淭he key question is when did the first star clusters form and start giving off
light,鈥� says Ellis. The early Universe may have been dotted with millions of
these early star systems, which later developed into mature galaxies like the
Milky Way.