List of the most distant astronomical objects

A ranked compilation of astronomical objects whose inferred distances from Earth are among the greatest known. Rankings depend on distance definitions, measurement methods, and the discovery of new objects.

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Redshift: The increase in a wave’s wavelength when its source moves away or spacetime expands. Cosmological redshift is the principal observable used to compare many remote galaxies.
JADES-GS-z14-0: A galaxy observed at a spectroscopic redshift of 14.32, seen as it existed roughly 290 million years after the Big Bang. Its confirmation made it one of the earliest and most distant known galaxies.
Spectroscopic redshift: A redshift measured from wavelength shifts in identifiable features of an astronomical spectrum. It provides the strongest direct redshift confirmation for many record-setting galaxies.
Cosmic dawn: The era when the first stars and galaxies formed and began illuminating the universe. The earliest ranked galaxies provide evidence about when this transition began.
Cosmological distance measures: A set of distance definitions used in an expanding universe, including comoving, luminosity, and angular-diameter distance. Different distance measures can assign different distances to the same high-redshift object.
GN-z11: A galaxy at redshift 10.6, observed as it appeared about 400 million years after the Big Bang. It held the record for the most distant known galaxy before later discoveries surpassed it.
Lyman-break technique: A method for finding distant galaxies through the abrupt loss of ultraviolet light shortward of the Lyman limit. It identifies candidate galaxies whose extreme redshifts can later be tested spectroscopically.
Reionization: The cosmic era when radiation from early sources ionized most intergalactic hydrogen. The most distant known galaxies help constrain which sources drove this transformation.
Observable universe: The region of the universe from which light has had time to reach Earth since the Big Bang. Its boundary limits which astronomical objects can appear in any distance ranking.
Earendel: A highly magnified star detected in the galaxy Sunrise Arc, whose light was emitted about 900 million years after the Big Bang. It is among the most distant individual stars detected.