Galaxy cluster at the edge of the Universe

Found on Discover on Sunday, 09 May 2010
Browse Astronomy

Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy cluster ever seen: the sexily-named SXDF-XCLJ0218-0510.

In the case of this newly found cluster, the light we see left it 9.6 billion years ago - making it 400 million light years farther away than the next-most distant cluster ever seen. The Universe itself is only 13.7 billion years old, so we're seeing this structure as it was not too long after it formed.

It would take some serious time to get there.