This Is Why Hubble Can’t See The Very First Galaxies
“By observing dark, empty patches of sky, it reveals ancient galaxies without nearby interference. When distant galaxy clusters are present, these massive gravitational clumps behave as natural magnifying lenses. The most distant observed galaxies have their light bent, distorted, and amplified along the journey. Hubble discovered the current cosmic record-holder, GN-z11, via lensing. Its light arrives from 407 million years after the Big Bang: 3% of the Universe’s current age.”
No astronomical observatory has revolutionized our view of the Universe quite like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. With the various servicing missions and instrument upgrades that have taken place over its lifetime, Hubble has pushed back the cosmic frontier of the first stars and galaxies to limits never before known. Yet there must be galaxies before them; some of the most distant Hubble galaxies have stars in them that push back the time of the first galaxies to just 250 million years after the Big Bang. Yet Hubble is physically incapable of seeing that far. Three factors: cosmic redshift, warm temperatures, and light-blocking gas, prevent us from going much beyond what we’ve already seen. In fact, we’re remarkably lucky to have gotten as distant as we have.