--- title: Hubble Breaks Record to Measure Distance to Remote Galaxy description: The galaxy is believed to be 13.4 billion light years away canonical: https://time.com/4248245/hubble-telescope-cosmic-record/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T20:40:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:18.773Z article:section: Science og:title: The Hubble Telescope Just Broke a New Cosmic Record og:description: The galaxy is believed to be 13.4 billion light years away og:url: https://time.com/4248245/hubble-telescope-cosmic-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4910aae0dfc26a42/69888039a988cacf616b6d98/esa-nasa-most-distant-galaxy-remote-gn-z11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Most distant galaxy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Hubble Telescope Just Broke a New Cosmic Record twitter:description: The galaxy is believed to be 13.4 billion light years away twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4910aae0dfc26a42/69888039a988cacf616b6d98/esa-nasa-most-distant-galaxy-remote-gn-z11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Hubble Telescope Just Broke a New Cosmic Record > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 4, 2016 8:40 PM UTC  This image shows the position of the most distant galaxy discovered so far within a deep sky Hubble Space Telescope survey called GOODS North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North). The remote galaxy GN-z11, shown in the inset, existed only 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only 3 percent of its current age. It belongs to the first generation of galaxies in the Universe and its discovery provides new insights into the very early Universe. This image shows the position of the most distant galaxy discovered so far within a deep sky Hubble Space Telescope survey called GOODS North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North). The remote galaxy GN-z11, shown in the inset, existed only 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only 3 percent of its current age. It belongs to the first generation of galaxies in the Universe and its discovery provides new insights into the very early Universe. NASA/ESA/P. Oesch/Yale University by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 4, 2016 8:40 PM UTC The [Hubble Space Telescope](http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1604/?lang) has broken a cosmic record. Peering deep into the universe, it has measured the distance to a small, ancient galaxy, pegging its cosmic neighborhood at 13.4 billion light years away. The previous record was 13.2 billion, and that comparatively small difference matters. The more remote a galaxy is, the longer its light has been traveling to us. So the new signal comes from not only the most remote galaxy ever measured, but also the oldest. Astronomers are calling the galaxy “GN-z11,” and noting that it’s extraordinarily bright given its distance from Earth. Its discovery “provides additional strong evidence that other unusually bright galaxies found in earlier Hubble images are really at extraordinary distances,” a [press release reads](http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1604/?lang). Since the universe as a whole is 13.8 billion years old, that means we’re closing in on some of the first galaxies ever formed.  The extreme age of GN-Z11 is easily the most remarkable thing about it—and indeed, in other respects it’s about as modest as a galaxy can get. It’s approximately 25 times smaller than the Milky Way and has 1% of its star mass. The galaxy is home to a rapidly growing number of stars, however, and forms them at a rate 20 times the rate at which stars are formed in the Milky Way. Of course, it’s best to describe everything about GN-Z11 in the past tense rather than the present: by peering 13.4 billion light years into the cosmic deep, Hubble also peered 13.4 billion years into the cosmic past. 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