The oldest, youngest and most disappointing picture ever taken

This is both the oldest and youngest picture ever taken - and we were expecting so much more.

It shows the furthest part of the universe that can be seen from the Earth, nearly 14 billion light years away. But because it is so many light years away, it also shows the universe before stars and galaxies were formed, which explains how it can be old and young at the same time.

"This is as far as we can see into the universe", Nasa scientists, who captured the image in 2003, explained. "The bright patterns show clumps of simple matter that will eventually form stars and galaxies".

Almost as fascinating as it is underwhelming. We were hoping for something more like this, which astronomers assembled using Nasa's venerable Hubble Space Telescope.

Or, better still, this: