Discovering the galaxy most life-long

Hubble has discovered the galaxy that scientists believe to be the oldest and most remote ever discovered.

Photo of Hubble's most ancient galaxy captured by the telescope.

The galaxy is believed to have a lifespan of 13.2 billion years and existed about 480 million years before the Big Bang. A team of NASA scientists said this was the period when galaxy formation in the early universe entered the " accelerating " phase.

Hubble Telescope

The researchers discovered the galaxy, called UDFj-39546284, with the help of a wide-field camera recently installed on the Hubble telescope .

Experts say the UDF galaxy will help astronomers better understand the origin of the universe .

" It's like looking back and seeing yourself as a child . It's a time machine," said Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz (USA). 'We are looking back at our own universe when the universe is young '.

The Hubble telescope, launched into space in 1990 and operating outside of the earth's atmosphere, played an important role in the research process to capture weak light from the early stages of Space.

To see any " older " stars or galaxies, astronomers have to wait until NASA launches the James Webb telescope, which is being built.