The current record holder for the furthest object observed is a galaxy called HD1, spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope. It's estimated to be 13.5 billion light-years away, meaning the light we see left that galaxy 13.5 billion years ago.
Here's the catch:
* The universe is expanding. So while we see HD1 as it was 13.5 billion years ago, the galaxy itself is now estimated to be around 28 billion light-years away.
* "Seeing" is relative. We don't actually see the galaxy directly. We observe the faint light emitted by its stars, which has been stretched and weakened by the expansion of the universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched in 2021, is designed to observe even fainter and more distant objects. With its infrared capabilities, it's already breaking records and revealing previously hidden details about the early universe.
So, while the actual distance is a complex and constantly evolving concept, we can say that the furthest objects we have observed are around 13.5 billion light-years away.
