Dr David Whitehouse Astronomers have discovered the most distant galaxy yet found. It was detected because it gives off radio waves. Hidden in the galaxy is thought to be the most-distant black hole discovered so far.
Black holes are massive objects that only flare with light when they engulf nearby stars.
The radio waves emitted by radio galaxies are thought to be powered by beams of extremely hot gas coming from super-massive black holes buried at their cores. The nearest and first-known radio galaxy, Cygnus A, was discovered nearly 50 years ago. The new, large optical telescopes allow astronomers for the first time to begin exploring the 'Dark Ages', when the Universe was very young and the first stars and black holes were born. Radio galaxies may lead the way. The image of the radio galaxy was obtained with the Keck Observatories twin giant telescopes situated on the Mauna Kea extinct volcano in Hawaii.