How Far Can We See In Space

So the age of the universe just seems like a number but it s a very big number.

How far can we see in space. The closest is 2 5 billion light years away but there are many much further out. There are billions of galaxies the most distant of which are so far away that the light arriving from them on earth today set out from the galaxies billions of years ago. The farthest away galaxies are 13 2 billion light years from earth meaning their light has taken 13 2 billion years to travel to hubble s cameras.

So we see them not as they are today but as they looked long before there was any life on earth. However a powerful new generation of telescopes like the james webb space telescope will be needed to confirm the suspected distances of these objects. Earth formed only 4 5 billion years ago so we can see quasars shining where the light had left before the earth.

That means the edge of the universe is 13 8 billion light years away so far away. Roughly 13 8 billion years. And though we may spy flickers of the first stars you don t have to go much deeper into cosmic history to encounter the ultimate limit to how far back we can ever see.

The deeper we see into space the more galaxies we discover. But we can see objects in space which are even more distant with the naked eye. When 13 billion light years is translated into kilometers there are a staggering number of zeros it comes out to approximately 123 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 km.

In actuality we can see for 46 billion light years in all directions for a total diameter of 92 billion light years. Visible all the way down here on earth the. As it turns out we have.

Today the most distant objects we can see are more than 30 billion light years away despite the fact that only 13 8 billion years have passed since the big bang.