We currently think that the universe is some 13.7 billion years
old. With that in mind, the zoomed-in cutaway above is pointing
to a very, very distant galaxy, which we've observed 420 million
years after the big bang. That means the light we're seeing from
it spent 13.3 billion years traveling through the cosmos. Whoa.
The galaxy, known as MACS0647-JD, was spotted by the Cluster
Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (or CLASH), which is an
effort by a global team of researchers captained by Marc Postman
of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The group
employs a technique called gravitational lensing to study the
stars, which involves using a cluster of galaxies as a loose
focal point to spot the light of an even more distant object as
that light curves around said galaxies. "This cluster does what
no manmade telescope can do," Postman said in a release by NASA.
"Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort
to observe this galaxy." In fact, MACS0647-JD may be so far away
t