In a newly released Hubble Telescope image, astronomers say they have captured an image of the oldest galaxy known to exist in the cosmos.

They detailed their findings in a study published in the Astrophysical Journal. In the full image, the galaxy known as EGS-zs8-1 is not viewable, but the astronomers were able to provide a zoomed-in look.

"Every confirmation adds another piece to the puzzle of how the first generations of galaxies formed in the early universe," study co-author Pieter van Dokkum, of Yale University, said in a press release. "Only the most sensitive telescopes are powerful enough to reach to these large distances."

The galaxy sits about 13.1 billion light years from Earth, though the researchers noted there are relatively few galaxies measured accurately in their distance.

"It has already grown to more than 15 percent of the mass of our own Milky Way today," study lead author Pascal Oesch, also of Yale University, said in the release. "But it had only 670 million years to do so. The universe was still very young then."

The study was a collaboration with Keck and Spitzer Telescopes, but it is also seen as a precursor for Hubble's follow-up act, the James Webb Telescope, which is slated for a 2018 launch.

"Our current observations indicate that it will be very easy to measure accurate distances to these distant galaxies in the future with the James Webb Space Telescope," Garth Illingworth, of the University of California Santa Cruz, said in the release. "The result of Webb's upcoming measurements will provide a much more complete picture of the formation of galaxies at the cosmic dawn."