13.8 Light Years Beyond

Via a telescope, a few galaxies can be seen. From the Southern Hemisphere, we can clearly see our closest neighbours, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, through a telescope. The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, is bright enough to be seen in no moon dark night and is located 2.5 billion light years away. It contains around 400 billion stars and can be seen with naked eyes.

Is it possible to see the galaxy, which is 15 billion light years away? No, because no galaxy can be seen unless it is at such a great distance, which means we are looking at a time before the universe existed. Since the universe is 13.8 billion light years old, we cannot see anything beyond that. But, beyond 13.8 light years away, can we see nothing but darkness? No, beyond 13.8 light years is known as cosmic microwave background, or in simple words, radiation as the early universe expanded and cooled and atoms began to form, and we could see light. This theory has yet to be approved since we lack the sophisticated telescope required to see further.

At 13.3 billion light years away, the galaxy MACS0647JD is the most distant object. It is a very small young galaxy, as it may have been in the past. However, the galaxy MACS0647 JD is most likely not at its present distance of 13.3 billion light years; instead, we are seeing the past light that has travelled 13.3 billion light years. Because the universe is expanding, objects that are currently 13.3 billion light years away could have moved further. However, if we look at it and consider the object's original position of 13.3 billion light years, the object could have moved around 32.1 billion light years away.

Since the observable universe has a diameter of around 93 billion light years and is still expanding, the age of the universe is 13.8 billion light years. This does not mean that nothing remains beyond 13.8 billion light years.