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
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This Hubble Space Telescope view reveals thousands of galaxies stretching back into time across billions of light-years of space. The image covers a portion of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS).
GOODS is a mosaic image that combines deep-field observations from Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, augmented with data from other space-based telescopes, such as XMM Newton, and some of the world's most powerful ground-based telescopes, such as the 4 m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Despite the multitude of galaxies visible in this image, one study using GOODS and other Hubble deep fields concluded that at least 10 times more galaxies exist in the observable universe than previously thought. This led to the conclusion that in order for the numbers of visible galaxies and their masses to add up, there must be a further 90 percent of galaxies in the observable universe that are still too faint and too far away to be seen with today's telescopes.
GOODS South is located in the constellation Fornax.
Credit: NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team, and M. Giavalisco (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
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Tags: GOODS Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey Hubble Hubble Space Telescope NASA ESA telescope space telescope cosmos universe space cosmic astronomy deep field deep fields GOODS South galaxies
This image of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was part of the Hubble Space Telescope's Frontier Fields project, which combined the power of natural "gravitational lenses" in space with Hubble's ability to create long-exposure deep field images.
Gravitational lenses occur when the immense gravity of massive galaxy clusters magnifies and distorts the light from objects behind them. This makes it possible to see objects far beyond the reach of normal telescopes.
Because light takes time to travel through vast space, the cluster of galaxies that make up Abell S1063 appears as it did 4 billion years ago. But Abell S1063 also allows astronomers to explore an earlier time, with at least one background galaxy appearing as it did just a billion years after the Big Bang.
Astronomers identified 16 background galaxies whose light has been distorted by the cluster’s gravity, causing multiple images of them. The gravity of the matter in the cluster, including normal and dark matter, causes this distortion. These types of observations help astronomers improve models of the distribution of matter in the cluster, key to understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter.
Observations of Abell S1063 also helped astronomers realize that the starlight in the cluster could be used to trace its distribution of dark matter. For a depiction of this, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2018/news-2018-56.html
Abell S1063 is located in the constellation Grus.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz (STScI)
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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
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Tags: Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 HUDF 2012 NASA Hubble ESA Hubble Space Telescope telescope space telescope cosmos universe space cosmic astronomy deep fields deep field galaxies
Thousands of galaxies stretching across billions of light-years of space are visible in this deep field image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The image covers a portion of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS).
GOODS combines deep-field observations from Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, augmented with data from other space-based telescopes, such as XMM Newton, and some of the world's most powerful ground-based telescopes, such as the 4 m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
The GOODS North field revealed an infant galaxy named GN-z11, seen as it was 13.4 billion years in the past. Because it takes time for light to travel across the vastness of space, astronomers saw the galaxy as it existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only three percent of its current age. Spectroscopic observations found that the galaxy is even farther away than originally thought, and existed only 200 million to 300 million years after the time when scientists believe the very first stars started to form.
GOODS North is located in the constellation Ursa Major.
Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (Yale University), G. Brammer (STScI), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz)
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Tags: GOODS North GOODS Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey NASA Hubble ESA Hubble Space Telescope telescope space telescope cosmos universe space cosmic astronomy deep fields deep field galaxies