Since the commissioning of the Hubble Space Telescope and other observation instruments that followed, tens of thousands of images of the cosmos have come down to us. While a large proportion of the objects discovered can be considered close, several other objects have been observed at extreme distances, until only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
To observe far is to observe in the past. This is why it is essential to be able to detect cosmic objects or structures as distant as possible, in order to be able to reconstruct the history of the Universe. Studying these distant objects is important because it allows scientists to continually improve theoretical models.
The discovery of such objects also raises many questions, sometimes challenging current theories. Indeed, the extreme distances of some of them imply formation very soon after the Big Bang. Such a situation, especially for galaxies and black holes, still raises unsolved problems.
The dwarf planet Eris
Eris, or officially (136199) Eris, is a dwarf planet more massive than Pluto and with a diameter of 2326 km. It is therefore the ninth most massive body orbiting the Sun. Discovered in January 2005, it has a natural satellite called Dysnomia. Located about 97 AU, or 1.451×10 10 km from our star, it is the furthest known dwarf planet from the Sun.
Voyager 1, the furthest human object
Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 is one of the twin space probes of the Voyager program. In 2012, she left the heliopause and found herself in the interstellar medium. Currently located about 143 AU from Earth, or 0.23% of a light year, it is the most distant human object.
Exoplanets SWEEPS-04 and SWEEPS-11
SWEEPS-04 is an exoplanet orbiting the star WEEPS J175853.92-291120.6 located in the constellation Sagittarius. Also located in the constellation Sagittarius, SWEEPS-11 is an exoplanet orbiting the star SWEEPS J175902.67−291153.5. Both located about 27,710 light-years from the Solar System, they are the two most distant known exoplanets.
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What is the total size of the Universe?
The ULAS J1342+0928 quasar
The quasar ULAS J1342+0928 is located in the constellation Bouvier and contains a supermassive black hole about 800 million solar masses. Discovered in December 2017, its measured redshift is z=7.54, a distance from Earth of 13.1 billion light-years. It would therefore have formed less than 690 million years after the Big Bang. It is thus the most distant quasar ever observed.
The blue supergiant Icarus
MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1, better known as Icarus, is a supergiant blue star observed thanks to the gravitational lensing effect of the galactic cluster MACS J1149+2223, located 5 billion light-years from the Earth. Located 9.34 billion light-years from our planet, Icarus is the most distant known individual star ever discovered.
The core-collapse supernova SN 1000+0216
Type II, Ib or Ic supernovae, also called core-collapse supernovae, occur at the end of the life of massive stars. Once the thermonuclear fusion reactions have stopped, the hydrostatic pressure of the stellar core is no longer sufficient to oppose gravity and the star collapses into a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole. SN 1000+0216 is a superluminous supernova (SLSN) observed 12 billion light-years from Earth, making it the most distant supernova ever detected.
The GRB 090423 gamma-ray burst
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are brief streams of gamma photons ejected into space during certain events such as supernovae, or binary systems of neutron stars or black holes. Gamma-ray burst GRB 090423, discovered in April 2009 and detected at a distance of 13 billion light-years from Earth (z=8.2), is the most distant GRB ever detected.
Galaxy GN-z11
The galaxy GN-z11 is an irregular high redshift galaxy of about 1 billion solar masses and located in the constellation Ursa Major. With a spectroscopic redshift of z =11.09, a distance of 13.4 billion light-years from Earth, GN-z11 is observed as it was only 400 million years after the Big Bang. It is therefore the most distant galaxy ever discovered.
