Artist's illustration of GRB090323's afterglow passing through two distant galaxies, revealing their unexpectedly high heavy element content, formed ~2 billion years after the Big Bang. Spectra show absorption lines indicating the galaxies' composition. The light travels 12 billion light-years to reach Earth.

Astronomy Picture from 24/11/2011

Caught in the Afterglow

Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111124.html


#GammaRayBurst #EarlyUniverse #GalaxyEvolution #GRB090323 #ESO #HeavyElements #StarFormation #Cosmology #Astrophysics #SpaceScience #Astronomy