Telescopes have come a long way since the first one was invented in 1608. So what's the most powerful telescope operating today, and how far can it see?

When the universe began, it was condensed into a hot mash of particles (protons, neutrons and electrons). As the universe expanded and cooled, the first stars and galaxies began to coalesce. The earliest of these we can see are around 13.7 billion years old, which is just a little over a hundred million years after the Big Bang.