Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Greatest Image Ever: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

▲ ▲ ▲


Hubble Ultra-Deep Field: The deepest image of the Universe ever taken


The Greatest Image Ever: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

In March 2004, the greatest image ever taken was announced: Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute today unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the million-second-long exposure reveals the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages," the time shortly after the big bang when the first stars reheated the cold, dark universe. The new image should offer new insights into what types of objects reheated the universe long ago.

This historic new view is actually two separate images taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer (NICMOS). Both images reveal galaxies that are too faint to be seen by ground-based telescopes, or even in Hubble's previous faraway looks, called the Hubble Deep Fields (HDFs), taken in 1995 and 1998.

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field Flythrough Credit: NASA, ESA and F. Summers (STScI)





▲▲▲

No comments:

Post a Comment

Seeking Alpha