Radio signal nearly 9 billion light-years away captured by telescope on Earth - CBS News

Building our future in space & on earth07:10 Researchers say they have captured a radio signal from the most distant galaxy to date.

"This effectively results in the magnification of the signal by a factor of 30, allowing the telescope to pick it up," said Nirupam Roy, co-author of the study and an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science.

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics This signal bending is called gravitational lensing, and it could help researchers observe faraway galaxies and the cosmic evolution of stars.

"But thanks to the help of a naturally occurring phenomenon called gravitational lensing, we can capture a faint signal from a record-breaking distance.

Hydrogen gas "provides the basic fuel for star formation in a galaxy," the researchers write in the study.

The research shows scientists may be able to probe the cosmic evolution of neutral gas with low-frequency radio telescopes in the near future.