Hubble Telescope Breaks Cosmic Distance Record

Ever since it was launched into low Earth orbit back in 1990, the Hubble Space telescope has captured some pretty breathtaking images, and it definitely helped humanity get a better understanding of what’s out there in the universe. Now, so many years after its initial launch, the large telescope still manages to impress by breaking some records, namely the cosmic distance record that was broken recently by spotting a very distant galaxy. Named GN-z11, this galaxy is 13.4 billion light-years away, which means that we can only observe how it looked like when the universe was just three percent of its current age.

GN-z11 was uncovered by a team of researchers from Yale University, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the University of California by using the telescope’s “wide field camera 3.” Pascal Oesch, the finding’s principal investigator, has issued the following statement in a press release:

“We’ve taken a major step back in time, beyond what we’d ever expected to be able to do with Hubble. We see GN-z11 at a time when the universe was only three percent of its current age.”

The discovery is undoubtedly impressive, but I’m definitely looking forward to this record being broken as well, especially since NASA is working hard on Hubble’s replacements, namely the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.

Joining the #GIFparty! @NASA_Hubble views farthest galaxy we've ever seen! https://t.co/9uZZodmhF7 pic.twitter.com/M8FTAuChY8

— NASA Goddard Images (@NASAGoddardPix) March 3, 2016