Two new galaxies discovered 29 billion light-years away out of 20% dust-hidden ones

Astronomers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have discovered two galaxies that were previously hidden behind dense space dust. Dubbed REBELS-12-2 and REBELS-29-2, the galaxies are located 29 billion light-years away and their existence came to light as the ALMA radio telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert pierced through the thick cosmic dust. Reportedly, it was because of this shroud of dust that both the galaxies escaped the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Nearly 20% of the universe’s galaxies are hidden: Experts

The team of astronomers that spotted the two galaxies suggest that nearly 20% of galaxies in our universe are still hidden due to the heavy presence of dust in space. According to Pascal Oesch, associate professor of the Niels Bohr Institute, the astronomers already knew about the existence of these two galaxies through the Hubble Telescope. Detailing about the discovery, Oesch said as per Daily Mail.

We noticed that two of them had a neighbour that we didn't expect to be there at all. As both of these neighboring galaxies are surrounded by dust, some of their light is blocked, making them invisible to Hubble.

Thanks to the ALMA telescope, it was able to locate the two galaxies when Hubble failed to do so. The team says that the light from the two galaxies reached earth after travelling for nearly 13 billion years, and this light was captured by ALMA. The telescope, which is capable of trapping radio waves emerging from the deepest areas of the universe, creates high-resolution images by combining the light received by 66 of its antennas.

Oesch further says that one in every five galaxies in the universe are obscured from our view and the experts are counting on the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for launch next month, to unveil these hidden galaxies. Daily Mail reported him further saying, “The next step is to identify the galaxies we overlooked, because there are far more than we thought. That’s where the James Webb Telescope will be a huge step forward”. He added that the Webb Telescope will be able to uncover the hidden galaxies without much effort as it is much more sensitive in detecting longer wavelengths than any other telescope ever made.

Image: Twitter/@almaobs