Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Question:  What is the farthest space object from the Earth?
harry l pellegrini

Answer:  The farthest objects that we can see are some very bright galaxies that 
are shining at us almost from the beginning of the universe. These are called
"quasars" because they look like very small objects (quasi-stellar) even though
they are so bright. Depending on how old the universe is, these galaxies are aro und 10 billion
light-years away.
We also have signals almost from the beginning of the universe.
The problem with space is the distances are so huge that the most distant things 
were there a very long time ago - it's impossible for us to be able to see
instantaneously what's out there at 10 billion light-years, but light takes 10
billion years to get there!
Asmith