Series of four panels that illustrate the distant-galaxy identification technique. Four panels that show (top to bottom, or right to left when rotated correctly) F814W filter, F606W filter, F450W filter, and F300W filter images, or near-infrared through near-ultraviolet images. The identified galaxy is prominent in the near-infrared image but totally absent in any of the other images. It is this spectroscopic signature that identifies this galaxy as a very distant object.

Credit: Ken Lanzetta and Amos Yahil (State University of New York at Stony Brook), and NASA