HCM-6A is an

LAE Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

that was found in 2002 by Esther Hu and

Lennox Cowie Lennox Lauchlan Cowie Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (born 18 October 1950, Jedburgh, Scotland) is a British astronomer, and professor at the Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii), Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. Biography In 1970, Co ...

from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

and Richard McMahon from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, using the Keck II Telescope in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. HCM-6A is located behind the

Abell 370 Abell 370 is a galaxy cluster located nearly 5 billion light-years away from the Earth (at redshift ''z'' = 0.375), in the constellation Cetus. Its core is made up of several hundred galaxies. It was catalogued by George Abell, and is the most d ...

galactic cluster, near M77 in the constellation

Cetus Cetus () is a constellation, sometimes called 'the whale' in English. The Cetus (mythology), Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology which both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water- ...

, which enabled the astronomers to use Abell 370 as a

gravitational lens A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This effect is known ...

to get a clearer image of the object.Press release
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, September 13, 2006 HCM-6A was the farthest object known at the time of its discovery. It exceeded

SSA22−HCM1 SSA may refer to: Geography * Sub-Saharan Africa Organizations * Safe Schools Alliance, a British advocacy group * SSA Global Technologies, American software company acquired by Infor Global Solutions * Shan State Army, a former insurgent gro ...

(''z'' = 5.74) as the most distant normal galaxy known, and quasar SDSSp J103027.10+052455.0 (''z'' = 6.28) as the most distant object known. In 2003, SDF J132418.3+271455 (''z'' = 6.578) was discovered, and took over the title of most remote object known, most remote galaxy known, and most remote normal galaxy known.

References

Dwarf galaxies Cetus (constellation) {{galaxy-stub