The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep–field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers believe it is 13.2 billion light-years away. (Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team)
The discovery of the oldest galaxy ever—it is 13.2 billion light years away—takes us our closest yet to what is believed to be the origin of the universe. NASA’a Hubble Telescope has just discovered the galaxy identified as UDFj-39546284 that formed 480 million years after the big bang. Considering that the universe is calculated to be 13.7 billion years, this is almost like watching our own embryo evolve.
The light from the red blob that we are looking at now left it 13.2 billion years ago. When you consider that light travels nearly 10 trillion kilometers or six trillion miles in a year and multiply that by 13.2 billion you get some sense of how far this galaxy is. In simpler terms our past is catching up with us only because astronomers have cared to look. We are living in times when humans can look the farthest we have ever looked because of the Hubble Space Telescope. The NASA graphic below neatly illustrates how we have evolved over the two decades.
What is fascinating for me personally is that we are looking at is something that happened so long ago that it is beyond rational conception. We cannot tell whether or not this galaxy still exists today. For that we will have to wait another 13.2 billion years at the very least. I say the very least because if the universe is in an infinite expansion mode, then it is possible that we would not be able see even beyond our own immediate galactic border. The expression “we” is misleading because I am talking billions of years from now.
For as long as I remember I have looked at sentient life from this universal scale. We strut about vaingloriously stroking our own importance oblivious to the fact that we cease to matter almost as soon as we leave the earth’s stratosphere. As of now we don’t matter even on our nearest celestial body, our own groupie as it were, namely the Moon. So next time something or someone on this planet bothers you or unsettles you or irritates you, just think of UDFj39546284 and it will all just melt into indescribable insignificance.