Astronomers make first accurate measurement of oxygen in distant galaxy

Quantifying the amount of oxygen is key to understanding how matter cycles in and out of galaxies. Stuart Wolpert Ryan Sanders and the CANDELS team - UCLA astronomy graduate student Ryan Sanders discovered a way to precisely measure oxygen in distant galaxies like COSMOS-1908, indicated by the arrow. UCLA astronomers have made the first accurate measurement of the abundance of oxygen in a distant galaxy. Oxygen, the third-most abundant chemical element in the universe, is created inside stars and released into interstellar gas when stars die. Quantifying the amount of oxygen is key to understanding how matter cycles in and out of galaxies. This research is published online in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is based on data collected at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.