--- title: Scientists Discover Farthest Galaxy From Earth Ever Recorded description: The galaxy lies about 13.2 billion light years from earth. canonical: https://time.com/3987164/farthest-galaxy-ever/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-06T14:20:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:15.779Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Discover Farthest Galaxy From Earth Ever Recorded og:description: It's about 13.2 billion light years from Earth, offering a glimpse back in time to the Big Bang og:url: https://time.com/3987164/farthest-galaxy-ever/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16c2879fd4433fac/69885e2b196cf46fb10376f1/space-galaxy.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: EGSY8p7 is the most distant confirmed galaxy whose spectrum obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory places it at a redshift of 8.68 at a time when the Universe was less than 600 million years old. The illustration shows the remarkable progress made in r og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Discover Farthest Galaxy From Earth Ever Recorded twitter:description: It's about 13.2 billion light years from Earth, offering a glimpse back in time to the Big Bang twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16c2879fd4433fac/69885e2b196cf46fb10376f1/space-galaxy.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Discover Farthest Galaxy From Earth Ever Recorded ## Video: A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ookw4W2.m3u8) (13:31)  _Published 2021-03-11. A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 6, 2015 2:20 PM UTC  EGSY8p7 is the most distant confirmed galaxy whose spectrum obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory places it at a redshift of 8.68 at a time when the Universe was less than 600 million years old. EGSY8p7 is the most distant confirmed galaxy whose spectrum obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory places it at a redshift of 8.68 at a time when the Universe was less than 600 million years old.Adi Zitrin—California Institute of Technology  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 6, 2015 2:20 PM UTC Scientists have just found a galaxy so far away from Earth that it offers a glimpse back in time to the Big Bang. The galaxy, discovered at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, lies about 13.2 billion light years from Earth, farther than any other galaxy ever measured. This distance means that researchers who are observing the galaxy’s stars today are seeing them as they were just 600 million years after the Big Bang, according to [a press release](http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/entry/new%5Frecord%5Fkeck%5Fobservatory%5Fconfirms%5Fmost%5Fdistant%5Fgalaxy) from the observatory. The universe was created about 13.8 billion years ago, based on modern estimates. California Institute of Technology astronomer Adi Zitrin, lead author of the discovery paper, described the study of distant galaxies: “we penetrate deeper into the Universe, and hence back to earlier times.” The discovery of this galaxy, known as EGSY8p7, could provide a valuable window into the universe’s past. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3987164/farthest-galaxy-ever/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3987164/farthest-galaxy-ever/"},"headline":"Scientists Discover Farthest Galaxy From Earth Ever Recorded","datePublished":"2015-08-06T14:20:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:15.779Z","description":"It's about 13.2 billion light years from Earth","url":"https://time.com/3987164/farthest-galaxy-ever/","keywords":["Space","Outer Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16c2879fd4433fac/69885e2b196cf46fb10376f1/space-galaxy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16c2879fd4433fac/69885e2b196cf46fb10376f1/space-galaxy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"EGSY8p7 is the most distant confirmed galaxy whose spectrum obtained with the W. 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