Indian AstroSat discovers one of the farthest Star galaxies 9.3 billion light years away; NASA lauds

New Delhi, Sep 02: As a landmark achievement in Space missions, a group of Indian Astronomers have now discovered one of the farthest star galaxies in the Universe. It is estimated to be located 9.3 billion light years away from Earth, and it has become a landmark achievement in Space missions.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, it is a matter of pride that India's first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory "AstroSat" has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. The galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics(IUCAA) Pune.

The importance and uniqueness of this original discovery can be made out from the fact that it has been reported in the leading international journal "Nature Astronomy" published from Britain. India's AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than one on the Hubble Space Telescope of US based NASA.

Singh has congratulated India's Space Scientists for once again proving to the world that India's capability in Space technology has risen to a distinguished level from where our scientists are now offering cues and giving leads to the Space scientists in other parts of the world. According to Professor ShyamTandon, the excellent spatial resolution and high sensitivity is a tribute to the hard work of the UVIT core team of scientists for over a decade.

Meanwhile, NASA hailed the discovery as an effort that will further enable humankinds understanding.

"NASA congratulates the researchers on their exciting discovery," NASAs Public Affairs Officer Felicia Chou told ANI.

Chou further added, "Science is a collaborative effort around the world, and discoveries like these help further humankinds understanding of where we come from, where are we going, and are we alone."