How far back in time can we look?

High-powered professional telescopes can almost see back to the dawn of the Universe

With enormous modern telescopes and sensitive detectors, professional astronomers can see far beyond what most back garden telescopes are capable of. As far as our own Solar System is concerned, one of the farthest objects observed so far is a 500km-wide asteroid, 2018VG18. Also known as Farout, it is over 120 times further from the Sun than Earth, or three times further away than dwarf planet Pluto. If you were standing on Farout’s dark, pink, icy surface, Earth would be a mag. +6.8 ‘star’ hugging close to the Sun and Jupiter would shine at barely mag. +5.0. If a space probe ever reaches Farout it will take 17 hours for its radio signals and images to reach Earth. As for the most distant object ever seen in the Universe, the…

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The Astronomer's Yearbook (Digital) - 1 Issue, Astronomer's Yearbook 2022

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