An image of the discovered galaxy
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NASA

A Long Time Ago in A Galaxy Far, Far Away...
News story originally written on August 1, 1997

A team of scientists from around the world just discovered a galaxy that is farther away than any galaxy ever discovered. The galaxy was discovered with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The newly discovered galaxy is very far away! Measurements show that it is at a distance of 13 billion light-years away. So the light that is reaching us now is actually 13 billion years old. That is how long the light from the galaxy took to travel to Earth.

So what we see occurring in the galaxy actually occurred 13 billion years ago, or a LONG time ago. Scientists hope that this will add to our knowledge of galaxies.


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