Looking back toward cosmic dawn − astronomers confirm the faintest galaxy ever seen

A phenomenon called gravitational lensing can help astronomers observe faint, hard-to-see galaxies. NASA/STScI

The universe we live in is a transparent one, where light from stars and galaxies shines bright against a clear, dark backdrop. But this wasn’t always the case – in its early years, the universe was filled with a fog of hydrogen atoms that obscured light from the earliest stars and galaxies.

The early universe was filled with a fog made up of hydrogen atoms until the first stars and galaxies burned it away. NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BY