A group of astronomers working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Maunakea have discovered the most distant group of galaxies to date, the W.M. Keck Observatory announced.

The researchers used the W.M. Keck Observatory to confirm the distance of the galaxies.

An announcement was made during the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu earlier this month.

Observatory officials say the trio of galaxies, named EGS77, dates back to when the universe was 680 million years old, or less than 5 percent of its current age of 13.8 billion years.

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