In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope spent 10 straight days in a unique experiment, staring at a dark, seemingly empty patch of sky ― about the size of a pinhead held at arm's length ― near the Big Dipper. The goal was to see what, if anything, could be found there.
The result was astounding: a collection of thousands of galaxies in various stages of evolution, a glimpse back in space and time that revealed a universe full of previously unrevealed wonders. The light from some of the farthest galaxies in the image traveled for 10 billion years to reach Earth.
The field is a very small sample of the heavens, but it represents the typical distribution of galaxies in space. The number of galaxies visible in this image, originally estimated at 1,500, was later found to be around 3,000.
Hubble took 342 exposures using different filters to create this image, which launched a series of deep field images that would reach farther and farther toward the horizon of the universe.
Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA/ESA
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In 1998, astronomers repeated their experiment capturing the Hubble Deep Field, this time in the southern sky. Hubble was trained on a region in the constellation Tucana, near the South Celestial Pole.
Since the universe should look the same in any direction, the Hubble Deep Field South should have a galaxy field similar to that of the original Hubble Deep Field. After 10 days of observations, Hubble confirmed that proposition by returning a keyhole view of myriad galaxies stretching back 12 billion light-years.
In selecting the Hubble Deep Field South, astronomers were unable to avoid all stars, so some foreground stars show up in this image. They bear the telltale spiked appearance caused by light diffracting or bending around the support structure of the telescope's secondary mirror.
Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field South Team, and NASA
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1998/news-1998-41.html
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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field consists of a rich tapestry of around 10,000 galaxies of all sizes, shapes, and ages.
As with other Hubble Space Telescope deep field images, the telescope was trained on a patch of sky that appears dark and empty in the view of ground-based telescopes. The target was an area in the constellation Fornax.
Captured over the course of 11 days between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004, 800 exposures comprise this long view back in space and time.
The smallest, reddest galaxies in this image existed when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies — the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals — thrived about 1 billion years ago when the cosmos was 13 billion years old.
Previous deep field images were taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, but this image was captured with Hubble's Advanced Camera For Surveys (ACS), installed on the telescope in 2002. ACS was able to improve on Hubble's previous deep fields with twice the field of view and much more sensitivity.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2004/news-2004-07.html
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Taken simultaneously with the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field-Infrared image provides a look even farther back in time than the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is a visible light image taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, but astronomers also used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera to find distant galaxies that cannot be seen in visible light. The light from the farthest galaxies has shifted from visible wavelengths to infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space.
This image combines both Hubble's visible light and infrared observations into one image.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2004/07/1467-Image.h...
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In 2012, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to revisit the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, peering even deeper than before at the near-infrared light of the cosmos. Astronomers use infrared light to study the distant universe because the expansion of space stretches wavelengths of light toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum, a phenomenon called "redshift."
The result was the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012. The observations uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 percent of its present age, or about 450 million years after the Big Bang.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 was followed by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014, which added ultraviolet light observations to obtain a more comprehensive view of this area in the constellation Fornax.
For an image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2014/27/3380-Image.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Ellis (Caltech), and the UDF 2012 Team
For more information about this image, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2012/news-2012-48.h...
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