Scientists may have glimpsed the most distant galaxy ever seen. The galaxy, known as MACS0647-JD, appeared as a tiny dot behind an enormous galactic cluster that lies between the Big and Little Dipper.
Scientists combined data from the Hubble space telescope with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to make the discovery. MACS0647-JD would have existed about 13.3 billion years ago, or roughly 420 million years after the Big Bang. This would place it around 200 million years earlier than previous candidates for most distance object ever spotted.
The galaxy cluster in front of MACS0647-JD helped scientists to see it, since the gargantuan gravitational pull of the cluster bends light around it. This creates a gravitational lens that makes distant objects appear much brighter than they otherwise would. If the existence of MACS0647-JD is confirmed, it would help scientists understand how the universe appeared when the first stars and galaxies formed.
The galaxy is small, appearing to be about 600 light-years across, or 250 times smaller than our Milky Way. Small, early galaxies are thought to have crashed into one another and combined over billions of years to form the enormous cosmic structure we see in the present-day universe.
But because the galaxy is stretching Hubble's and Spitzer's abilities, it may actually be much closer. Other current telescopes can't really confirm its existence but NASA's future James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, could definitively determine how far it is to MACS0647-JD.
Image: NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (Space Telescope Science Institute), and the CLASH team
