In a new report accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, astronomers with the European Southern Observatory announce the discovery of a previously undocumented galaxy, Softpedia reports.
The galaxy, argued to be the absolute brightest thus far discovered in the young cosmos, was named CR7. If this moniker sounds familiar, this is because it is also the nickname of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese footballer now shares his name with one of the first galaxies to have come into being in the aftermath of the Big Bang. Yet another reason to be jealous of him.
“The nickname was inspired by the great Portuguese footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is known as CR7,” the European Southern Observatory astronomers who found the galaxy write in their report.
Thus, CR7 stands for COSMOS Redshift 7, with COSMOS being the name of a patch of sky in the constellation Sextans and redshift being a measure of a galaxy’s distance to our planet and its age.
“The higher the redshift, the more distant the galaxy and the further back in the history of the Universe it is seen,” scientists explain. With a redshift of 7, CR7 is one of the oldest galaxies.
