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\nDotted across the sky in the constellation of\u00a0Pictor\u00a0(The Painter\u2019s Easel) is the\u00a0galaxy cluster\u00a0highlighted here by the\u00a0NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope: SPT-CL J0615-5746, or SPT0615 for short. First discovered by the\u00a0South Pole Telescope\u00a0less than a decade ago, SPT0615 is exceptional among the myriad clusters so far catalogued in our map of the\u00a0Universe\u00a0\u2014 it is the highest-redshift cluster for which a full,\u00a0strong lens\u00a0model is published.\n<\/p>\n
\nSPT0615 is a massive cluster of galaxies, one of the farthest observed to cause gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a background object is deflected around mass between the object and the observer. Among the identified background objects, there is SPT0615-JD, a galaxy that is thought to have emerged just 500 million years after the Big Bang. This puts it among the very earliest structures to form in the Universe. It is also the farthest galaxy ever imaged by means of gravitational lensing.\n<\/p>\n
\nJust as ancient paintings can tell us about the period of history in which they were painted, so too can ancient galaxies tell us about the era of the Universe in which they existed. To learn about\u00a0cosmological history, astronomers explore the most distant reaches of the Universe, probing ever further out into the cosmos. The light from distant objects travels to us from so far away that it takes an immensely long time to reach us, meaning that it carries information from the past \u2014 information about the time at which it was emitted.\n<\/p>\n
\nBy studying such distant objects, astronomers are continuing to fill the gaps in our picture of what the very early Universe looked like, and uncover more about how it evolved into its current state.\n<\/p>\n