Profiles: Steve Finkelstein

Assistant professor and astronomer Steve Finkelstein can travel through time. Well, almost. He uses data from the Hubble Space Telescope to gaze beyond to the most distant galaxies in the universe. He studies galaxy evolution, and is on a quest to discover the origins of our Milky Way and life itself.

In 2013, Finkelstein led a team in discovering and measuring the distance to what at that time was the furthest galaxy ever found. Finkelstein's team selected the galaxy z8_GND_5296 from 10,000 other candidates discovered in the Hubble Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), the largest project in the history of Hubble, and of which Finkelstein is a member.

Watch as he briefly explores this topic, as well as his role as a scientist. Read more about his research here.