NASA Finds Most Distant Object in the Universe to Date

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

NASA believes it has found the most distant galaxy observed to date. MACS0647-JD is just a fraction of the size of the Milky Way and believed to be 13.3 billion light years away.

Since the image displays the galaxy as it existed 13.3 billion years ago, it provides an unprecedented view into the beginnings of our universe as the big bang is theorized to have happened about 13.7 billion years ago. The image of MACS0647-JD represents an environment when the universe was just 420 million years old.

NASA said that it used the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes as well as "natural zoom lenses" to acquire the image.

The organization noted that 8 billion years after MACS0647-JD light had begun its journey, "it took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015." The cluster served as magnification source for the light source:

"Because of gravitational lensing, the […] research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope," NASA said. "The cluster's gravity boosted the light from the faraway galaxy, making the images appear about eight, seven, and two times brighter than they otherwise would that enabled astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently and with greater confidence."

NASA estimates that MACS0647-JD is less than 600 light years wide, which compares to 150,000 light years of the Milky Way.

Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

Wolfgang Gruener
65 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fazers_on_stun
    I doubt they'll be able to spot things much further back -- IIRC the universe was opaque to EM radiation for quite some time after the Big Bang..
    Reply
  • JonnyDough
    MACS0647-JD is just a fraction of the size of the Milky Way and believed to be 13.3 billion light years away.

    MACS0647-JD WAS just a fraction of the size of the Milky Way and is believed to have beenbe 13.3 billion light years away.

    Fixed! By the time the light reached us this galaxy was already long gone - as was reported in the rest of the article.
    Reply
  • widj
    so if you want to look for the past, look at the stars?
    Reply
  • upgrade_1977
    What I don't get, is that if this object is 13.3 billion light years away, and the age of the universe as theorized is 13.75 billion years, then that would put us on the very edge of the universe, so if we looked in the other direction of the universe, we should only be able to see 0.45 billion light years in the other direction, which means we would have already been able to see the edge of the universe. If we can see 13.3 billion light years in the other direction, then that means the age of the universe is at minimum age 26.6 billion years old. Is this not common sense? So that means all the theories about the age of the universe is way off. Even if we are close to the edge of the universe, say 3 quarters of the way by the edge, that still adds of to way more then 13.75 billion light years. Also, I doubt we are in the center of the universe, but if when we look in all directions, and we can see equal distances, then i'm assuming the universe is much larger then theorized.

    Reply
  • mouse24
    upgrade_1977-snip
    I am sure you know better than all the scientists in the world based on some very rough guess work and five seconds of googling.
    Reply
  • sseyler
    upgrade_1977What I don't get, is that if this object is 13.3 billion light years away, and the age of the universe as theorized is 13.75 billion years, then that would put us on the very edge of the universe, so if we looked in the other direction of the universe, we should only be able to see 0.45 billion light years in the other direction, which means we would have already been able to see the edge of the universe. If we can see 13.3 billion light years in the other direction, then that means the age of the universe is at minimum age 26.6 billion years old. Is this not common sense? So that means all the theories about the age of the universe is way off. Even if we are close to the edge of the universe, say 3 quarters of the way by the edge, that still adds of to way more then 13.75 billion light years. Also, I doubt we are in the center of the universe, but if when we look in all directions, and we can see equal distances, then i'm assuming the universe is much larger then theorized.
    The reason why you are not right is because the "edge" of the universe, if there is one, is not like the surface of a sphere in which we reside. We are also NOT at the center of the universe. The universe expands about every point uniformly, so while it appears that everything is moving away from us, it looks like that from every other part of the universe as well. See this picture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Expansion_of_Space_%28Galaxies%29.png) and the corresponding wiki page for some clarification.

    Albeit I have hardly touched on some ideas that your questions purport to explain, you can be well assured that thousands of cosmologists, astronomers, and other physicists haven't just made a simple arithmetic error (as you've suggested) when talking about the expansion of the universe.

    Cheers,

    sseyler
    Reply
  • mesab66
    +1
    Reply
  • drwho1
    "Since the image displays the galaxy as it existed 13.3 billion years ago, it provides an unprecedented view into the beginnings of our universe as the big bang is theorized to have happened about 13.7 billion years ago."

    So how exactly NASA took a picture from a time where there were no cameras in existence,
    when it is still hard to take a still picture from a moving object today.

    just saying....
    Reply
  • nebun
    if you believe in the BIGBANG you, my friend are a moron
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    drwho1"Since the image displays the galaxy as it existed 13.3 billion years ago, it provides an unprecedented view into the beginnings of our universe as the big bang is theorized to have happened about 13.7 billion years ago."So how exactly NASA took a picture from a time where there were no cameras in existence, when it is still hard to take a still picture from a moving object today.just saying....I hope that is sarcasm. Light from that distance is JUST getting here NOW.

    Even out own suns light takes about 8 minutes to reach the earth.
    Reply