It encompasses a region in the sky that includes those shown in older Hubble mosaics -- the Ultra Deep Field and the eXtreme Deep Field -- and contains 265,000 galaxies. That's 30 times as many galaxies as previous deep field images, enough to cover an area that's almost as wide as the moon.

While the eXtreme Deep Field is still our deepest look into the universe, the Legacy Field also gives us a glimpse of the early cosmos -- a time "when small, young galaxies collided and merged with other galaxies," NASA explained. It shows the state of galaxies as far back as 13.3 billion years ago, or just 500 million years after the Big Bang.

NASA says no image will surpass the Legacy Field's scope until future telescopes make their way to orbit. That could take years and years, though, seeing as Hubble's successor, the James Webb telescope, won't be launching until 2021.

Garth Illingworth, who led the team that assembled the image, said: