COLLEGE STATION (January 25, 2010)--Two Texas A&M University astronomers were part of a team that has spent months studying the characteristics of some of the most distant galaxies ever recorded.

The scientists used a new wide-field camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and interpreted images that show galaxies from about 13 billion years ago.

Astronomers Steven Finkelstein and Casey Papovich relied on images and data from the camera, which are available to the public through NASA.

Papovich says what they saw are believed to be "the most distant things anyone has found."

Finkelstein and Papovich offered details this month to the American Astronomical Society.