National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Discovery of the Most Distant Galaxy in the Cosmic Dawn

| Science

A team of astronomers has used the Subaru and Keck Telescopes to discover the most distant galaxy ever found, SXDF-NB1006-2, at a distance of 12.91 billion light years from the Earth. This galaxy is slightly farther away than GN-108036, which Subaru Telescope discovered last year and was the most distant galaxy discovered at the time. In addition, the team's research verified that the proportion of neutral hydrogen gas in the 750-million-year-old early Universe was higher than it is today. These findings help us to understand the nature of the early Universe during the “cosmic dawn”, when the light of ancient celestial objects and structures appeared from obscurity.

The color image of the Galaxy, SXDF-NB1006-2
Color composite image of the Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field.
The red galaxy at the center of the image is the most distant galaxy, SXDF-NB1006-2.

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