Get Out!: Hubble Possibly Spotted Furthest Galaxy Ever

Astronomers believe they may have just spotted the furthest galaxy ever, a little cluster named MACS0647-JD (his parents must have really hated him), between the Big and Little Dippers. That's right, like THE furthest one. What's beyond it? The restaurant at the end of the galaxy? A wall? God?
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 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.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could like, just go there and KNOW what was going on? I want to live in a time when we can do that. That's why I've decided to be cryogenically frozen this weekend while I'm still in mediocre health so they can bring me back when we have the technology to get off this rock. Hopefully it's sooner than later though because I only have enough money to stay frozen till New Years.
Thanks to legendaryxatdx , who's so legendary even the aliens living in MACS0647-JD have heard about his exploits.
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Note: Worthwhile higher-res version HERE. This is the eXtreme Deep Field, a composite shot of all the galaxies in a teensy view of space, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's two primary cameras over the past decade. Look at all those galaxies! And, I hope you're sitting do... / Continue →

