| A1689-zD1 | |
| Epoch: | J2000 |
| Constellation Name: | Virgo |
| Z: | 7.6 |
| H Radial V: | 2,278,423 km/s |
| Gal V: | 2,278,351 +/- 3 km/s |
| Dist Ly: | 13 billion light-years (light travel distance) 30 billion light-years (present proper distance) |
| Group Cluster: | Abell 1689 |
| Type: | Dwarf |
| Appmag V: | 25.3 |
| Size: | ~3,000 ly (diameter) |
| Size V: | 0.0008 x 0.0008 |
| Names: | BBF2008 A1689-zD1 |
A1689-zD1 is a galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It was a candidate for the most distant and therefore earliest-observed galaxy discovered, based on a photometric redshift.[1] [2]
If the redshift, z~7.6,[3] is correct, it would explain why the galaxy's faint light reaches us at infrared wavelengths. It could only be observed with Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera exploiting the natural phenomenon of gravitational lensing: the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, which lies between Earth and A1689-zD1, at a distance of 2.2 billion light-years from us, functions as a natural "magnifying glass" for the light from the far more distant galaxy which lies directly behind it, at 700 million years after the Big Bang, as seen from Earth.[1]