Just learned that the Hubble Deep Field image contains galaxies over 13 billion light years away

I was reading an article on the NASA website last night and it said the Hubble Deep Field picture, taken back in 1995, shows thousands of galaxies. The crazy part is some of the light from those galaxies has been traveling for over 13 billion years to reach us. That means we're seeing them as they were when the universe was very young. It really makes you think about how small we are in the grand scheme of things. Do you think images from the new James Webb telescope will show us even older galaxies, or is there a limit to how far back we can see?

3 comments

3 Comments

milesbailey14d ago

Man, that Hubble fact always gets me. It's wild to feel so small like that. I bet Webb will push that limit even further, honestly.

the_faith14d ago

Forget how far it sees, the real mind-blower is how far back it looks. We're basically watching old home movies of the universe's baby pictures.

eric_knight714d ago

Yeah, the "old home movies" line is perfect. It's not just a far away picture, it's a time machine. We're literally seeing light that left when the universe was a toddler. Webb is already showing us stuff even closer to the big bang, like those weird early galaxies that shouldn't exist yet. There's probably a hard limit somewhere, back to when everything was just a hot fog, but we keep finding ways to look closer to it.

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