Galaxy named as CR7 after footballer Cristiano Ronaldo

Astronomers have named a newly discovered galaxy as CR7 (COSMOS Redshift 7) after Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo is famously known as CR7 after his initials and his jersey number.  He had won Fifa’s Ballon d’Or award consecutively for two years in 2013 and 2014 and has scored a staggering 66 goals this season.
Facts about CR7 galaxy

• CR7 discovered by a team of astronomers led by Dr. David Sobral from the University of Lisbon in Portugal and Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.
• It was discovered by using European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT).
• CR7 is three times brighter compared to Himiko galaxy which was earlier thought be as brightest distant galaxy known to mankind.
• It is part of the early universe which contains the first generation of stars i.e. known as Population III stars.
• CR7 belongs to the age of the ancient Universe which existed 800 million years after the Big Bang. This period is known as reionization period.

Population III stars: They are first generation of stars which are born out of the primordial material of the Big Bang. It is believed that Population III stars are several hundred or even a thousand times more massive than our Sun and it is more blazing hot, transient, exploding as supernovae after only about 2 million years ago.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2015