In November 2012, a new distance record breaker has been weighed in with a photometric redshift of z ~ 10.8 which is roughtly 420 million years after the big bang. This is pretty significant.
The Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), and the Spitzer/IRAC has measured the photometric redshift and with the help of Gravitational Lensing has been able to see the object by it’s increased visability and determined its distance.
The paper on the object, together with 2 other distance candidates, can be viewed (in full if you have access) on ApJ: http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/762/1/32 or you can get a pre-print on ArXiv which is almost the same as the ApJ paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.3663v1.pdf
MACS0647-JD is the one of the three with the largest redshift, and a Lyman Break Galaxy. The light from the relic galaxy, at the time of transmission, was so small and may have been in the first stages of forming a larger galaxy.
