BAY CITY -- NASA's Hubble Telescope has discovered what astronomers are calling the earliest and farthest object in the universe.
The galaxy looks like a small dot of starlight, but scientists say the discovery is giving them more information about what happened after the Big Bang.
Astronomers say they've discovered signs of a new galaxy that could be the most distant object ever found in the universe.
"It’s so exciting because these are clues to the very early universe, and how it transformed from a universe of energy, expanding rapidly, to the first stars," said William Mitchell, the Planetarium Specialist at the Delta College Planetarium.
The galaxy's tiny smidge of light traveled more than 13 billion years to be picked up by the Hubble Telescope’s infrared wavelengths.
"You want to find the earliest elements of the universe that you possibly can, because we are trying to answer that age old question, how did it begin, where did it all come from?" said Mitchell.
The suspected galaxy, which hasn't been named yet, came into existence 480 million years after the Big Bang.
Here's an example of how this galaxy was created , stars become attracted to each other through their mutual gravity, over time they spin and get closer and closer together, until finally a galaxy is created.
To catch a glimpse of where the galaxy is, look for the constellation Orion at about 8 o’ clock on a clear night.
"If you connect the corner stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel, and follow that diagonal line down towards the southern horizon, you'll be in the range of the constellation Fornax," said Mitchell.
And that's where the new galaxy was discovered.
So, is it possible life is living there?
"Recent discoveries include over 500 other stars relatively near to us that have planets orbiting them, and where you have planets, you have the possibility of life," said Mitchell.
Something worth pondering when gazing at the starry sky.
In the next few years, astronomers will use the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble’s successor, to find out more about this new galaxy.
Astronomers measure the universe by tracking how far light is stretched from an object through space.
