image: An intensive survey deep into the universe by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has yielded the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack: the farthest galaxy yet seen in an image that has been stretched and amplified by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. The embryonic galaxy named SPT0615-JD existed when the universe was just 500 million years old. Though a few other primitive galaxies have been seen at this early epoch, they have essentially all looked like red dots given their small size and tremendous distances. However, in this case, the gravitational field of a massive foreground galaxy cluster not only amplified the light from the background galaxy but also smeared the image into an arc. No other candidate galaxy has been found at such a great distance that also gives spatial information about the size and mass of such an embryonic galaxy. More information: http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-02 view more
Credit: NASA, ESA, and B. Salmon (STScI)