Science

Hubble Extreme Deep Field images the farthest reaches of the universe

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Astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of our deepest-ever view of the Universe (Image: NASA)
The Hubble Space Telescope is in orbit at 600 kilometers, or approx. 400 miles above Earth (Image: ESA)
Astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of our deepest-ever view of the Universe (Image: NASA)
This image, called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), combines Hubble observations taken over the past decade of a small patch of sky in the constellation of Fornax (Image: NASA)
This image separates out the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field by the distances of objects within it (Image: NASA)
The area around the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and the full Moon, shown to scale for comparison (Image: NASA)
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NASA scientists have directed the Hubble Space Telescope to inspect a tiny patch of sky with an unusually long exposure time to obtain the deepest image of the sky ever obtained. The image, dubbed the Hubble Extreme Deep Field (XDF), reveals the faintest and most distant galaxies ever detected, shedding more light on the early history of the universe.

Nine years ago, NASA decided to point Hubble at a seemingly empty, randomly chosen spot in the sky – no larger than a needle's eye at arm's length – and have it gather data over one millions seconds in total exposure. The result was the iconic image dubbed the "Hubble Ultra-Deep Field" (HUDF) which, even in a space that small, revealed in excess of ten thousand galaxies.

Now, NASA has done it again, taking the experiment to new levels. With XDF, NASA took a patch of sky within the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field and doubled the exposure time to a total of two million seconds, or an impressive 23 days. Despite a much narrower field of view, the new picture shows 5500 galaxies in even greater detail, including the earliest we have ever observed.

This image separates out the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field by the distances of objects within it (Image: NASA)

Because the universe is expanding, light from distant galaxies is shifted into longer, infrared wavelengths. Hubble combined its two primary cameras – the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the near-infrared Wide Field Camera 3 – to take over 2000 pictures of the area in question, which were then combined to form the XDF.

The picture reveals a number of spiral galaxies similar to our Milky Way, but also many large red galaxies that have seen catastrophic collisions with other galaxies and have lost the capability of producing new stars.

The Hubble Space Telescope is in orbit at 600 kilometers, or approx. 400 miles above Earth (Image: ESA)

Before Hubble, astronomers could only see galaxies seven billion light-years away – roughly half the age of the universe. This newly released image, however, sets a new record in that it has found galaxies existing as early as 450 million years after the Big Bang, allowing astronomers to investigate further into the past than ever before.

What's next? Armed with enhanced infrared capabilities, the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for launch in 2018 will be equipped to discover even fainter and earlier galaxies.

The video below gives a sense for the miniscule field of view of used to take this image.

Source: ESA

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4 comments
capn_jack@bellsouth.net
I guess you could call this the "double Hubble"!
James Simpson
So, the Hubble must be looking towards what we think is "The center" of the universe? ( Red Shift) If looking the other direction we would see "Blue Shift"? and see what occurred before we existed ( IE, that which has already passed us by??? I think that Earth is somewhere in between the beginning and the "Outskirts"? If So, looking towards "The Big Bang", this suggests that there are fragments of light still traveling in space that are from the "moment" of the big bang. Yet, I think that we could never see that "Moment", because earth is about X billion years old now, so, we could only get close enough to catch those streams of light that have not already passed us by up to X billion years from the Bang??? Wait a minute-- something is missing here.!! What is missing in my concept of seeing the Big Bang? Has that light already passed us by, and out there in the "Blue-shift" younder?
David Bell
@capn_jack: Nope, no matter which way we look, the large structures of the universe are moving away from us. It goes back to the "plum pudding" 3D analogy:
As the pudding (universe) rises (expands), the raisins (galaxies) get farther apart. Or, for Flatlanders, spots on surface of an inflating balloon all move apart; ther is no preferential direction towards "the center" of the curved, 2D surface in which they live.
Dave
agulesin
And they are thinking to junk Hubble after its done so much fantastic work...