See the Discovered Farthest and Oldest Galaxy

Astronomers have established the discovery of one of the oldest and most distant objects ever known in the universe — a star-forming galaxy 12.8 billion light-years away that started forming within a billion years of the Big Bang that kickstarted everything.

The galaxy, known as G09 83808, was first spotted by the Herschel space telescope, but it only showed up as a blur. The astronomers who made the find wanted more information, so they relayed the data to a team that used the Large Millimeter Telescope in the Galapagos. Astronomers confirmed that G09 83808 is the oldest object ever found by that telescope. Only one other object — a similar galaxy that’s slightly older and more distant — has ever been found by other telescopes.

G09 83808 provides almost unique insights into the early days of our universe after the cosmos was formed 13.7 billion years ago.