Far out, man: 13.1bn-year-old galaxy is most distant yet seen by humans

Galaxy EGS-zs8-1 has moved 30bn light-years away from Earth since it was born: 'We're actually looking back through 95% of all time to see this galaxy'

A team of astronomers has measured a galaxy farther than any other ever seen by human beings, reporting this week that the ancient star system offers a glimpse of what the universe was like not all that long after the beginning of time.

Astronomers from Yale University and the University of California Santa Cruz announced in the Astrophysical Journal that they had identified a galaxy that formed about 13.1bn years ago, making it the earliest measured galaxy known in the 13.8bn-year history of the universe since the big bang.