The Times - UK (2022-04-08)

the times | Friday April 8 2022 2GM 21

News

A galaxy far, far away has been identi-
fied as the oldest and most distant ob-
ject ever spotted by astronomers, who
found that it existed just 330 million
years after the Big Bang.
The light from a galaxy named HD1
has been travelling for 13.5 billion years
to reach the Earth, making it around
100 million years older than the most
distant object seen before.

After the Big Bang 13.8 billion years

ago, there was a spell of up to 180 mil-

lion years before the first stars formed

to fill the universe with light. The HD1

galaxy was born shortly after the end of

the “cosmic dark ages” and has been de-

scribed as a “giant baby in the delivery

room of the early universe”.

The HD1 galaxy may be one of these

first galaxies, appearing to us now as it

looked about 100 million years after it

formed, Fabio Pacucci, an astronomer

at the Centre for Astrophysics in Mas-

sachusetts, told The Times. This could

make it about 13.6 billion years old.

Astronomers were able to calculate

how long the light from HD1 has been

travelling from its red-shift.

The more distant a galaxy, the redder

its light appears because the wave-

length of light stretches as it moves

through the ever-expanding fabric

of space.

Yuichi Harikane, an astronomer at

the University of Tokyo and honorary

research associate at University Col-

lege London, who found the galaxy,

said: “HD1’s red colour matched the ex-

pected characteristics of a galaxy 13.5

billion light years away surprisingly

well, giving me goosebumps when I

found it.”

Although it appears in images as a

red splodge, HD1 is extraordinarily

bright with “extreme ultraviolet lumi-

nosity”. This could be because there is a

supermassive black hole at its centre,

which would be the earliest ever found,

or because it was producing some of the

universe’s very first stars, which were

“more massive, more luminous and

hotter than modern stars”, Pacucci said.

Their findings were published in two

journals, the Monthly Notices of the

Royal Astronomical Society: Letters and

the Astrophysical Journal.

Looking back to the birth of the

universe, leading article, page 31

Galactic goosebumps after red splodge identified as oldest object

Kaya Burgess

A satellite that will track ships to
combat terrorism, smuggling and
piracy is to be blasted into orbit from
Cornwall aboard the first ever space
launch from British soil this summer.
A modified Boeing 747-400 named
Cosmic Girl is due to take off from
Cornwall Airport Newquay — Britain’s
first operational spaceport — with a
Virgin Orbit rocket under one wing.
At 35,000 feet the LauncherOne
rocket will detach and fire up its booster
to blast its payload of small satellites
into orbit. It will also be the first satellite
launch from European soil.
It has been announced this week that
one of the satellites on board will be
Amber-1, built by AAC Clyde Space, a
company that builds small satellites in
Scotland.
It will be the first of 20 Amber
satellites that will be launched in vari-
ous orbits to track shipping around the
world, picking up a variety of signals
emitted by ships, including high and
very-high frequency radio frequencies,
mobile and satellite phone signals, wi-fi
signals, fishing net beacons and radar.
It should allow officials to track ships
that are trying to remain hidden by
“going dark” and switching off their

historic flight, the first to bring domes-

tic launch capability to the United

Kingdom.

“We believe tracking shipping from

space is vital to keeping the seas safe

and that Amber-1 is a key technology

that will aid this endeavour. [These are]

the latest signs of the growth we are

seeing across the UK space economy.

This is galvanised by our planned

JULIAN CASSADY PHOTOGRAPHY

O

ne of the

most

important

paintings

from Pablo Picasso’s

annus mirabilis has

emerged for sale for

£45 million (David

Sanderson writes).

Femme Nue

Couchée, seen as one

of his most lyrical

depictions of his

“golden muse” Marie-

Thérèse Walter, was

painted in 1932, which

experts now regard as

a pivotal moment for

his art. Picasso and

Walter had been

lovers since 1927

when the artist, aged

46, saw the 17-year-

old in a Paris store.

Sotheby’s said the

painting, to be sold in

New York next

month, had

“remained within the

artist’s estate for

decades before its

acquisition from the

family of the artist”.

Picasso’s

£45 million

portrait of

young lover

Femme Nue

Couchée depicts

Picasso’s “golden

muse” Marie-

Thérèse Walter

Cornish space mission to catch pirates

transmitters, a tactic used by oil tankers

trying to break embargoes, fishing

vessels in forbidden waters, drug

smugglers, human traffickers and even

warships.

“[The] data will be used by govern-

ments to provide information on the

tracking and prevention of illegal

fishing, smuggling, trafficking, piracy

and terrorism,” a release said.

“Information collected through the

programme will be provided to the

United Kingdom’s Joint Maritime

Security Centre (JMSC).”

The JMSC is led by senior personnel

from the Royal Navy, Ministry of

Defence, Border Force and the Marine

Management Organisation, with

support from counterterrorism police,

HM Revenue & Customs and the

National Crime Agency. A firm date for

the launch has not been confirmed.

The satellite was created in a

partnership between Satellite

Applications Catapult, a company

based in Didcot, Oxfordshire, and

Horizon Technologies, a British firm

specialising in the monitoring of satel-

lite phones.

Dan Hart, the chief executive of

Virgin Orbit, said: “We are delighted to

work with Catapult and Horizon to

launch Amber-1 on this planned

capability to launch straight from the

United Kingdom to orbit.”

The rocket will also carry the first

Welsh-made satellite made by the

Cardiff-based start-up Space Forge.

The company believes that the micro-

gravity in orbit could be the perfect

environment for manufacturing new

materials and pharmaceutical products

and hopes to prove that they can be

assembled in space and returned safely

to Earth.

The only other satellite confirmed

for the launch is the first Omani satel-

lite, which will launch into deep space

to collect data on climate change and

natural disasters.

Lucy Edge, chief operating officer of

Catapult, said: “This launch is a huge

milestone for the space sector in the

UK. This summer the UK completes its

end-to-end ecosystem enabling

companies to design, build, launch and

operate their spacecraft all from one

place.”

George Freeman, the science

minister, said: “British satellites have

been saving lives at sea for decades by

providing emergency communications

and location services, so it is fitting that

Virgin Orbit’s first mission from Space

Cornwall will launch a maritime intelli-

gence satellite.”

Kaya Burgess Science Reporter

Cosmic Girl, a Boeing

747-400, takes off from

Cornwall spaceport and

carries LauncherOne

rocket to an altitude

of 35,000ft

1

2 The rocket is deployed into orbit

from the aircraft and up to ten

miniature satellites are released

3 Amber-1 is one of the satellites

to be deployed, to sit in low

orbit 345 miles above Earth

Amber-1 will locate

and track vessels

worldwide by picking

up signals including:

How it works

22 The rocket is depplooyeoyeeeddddi t into orbbbbitbbit

from the aircraft an

miniature satellite

y

nd

esa

u

a

up to ten

re releaseeed

35,000ft

345 miles

Radio

Radar

Mobile and satellite

phones

4

AMBER-1