[left] – This image of a small region of the constellation Sculptor, taken with a ground-based photographic sky survey camera, illustrates the extremely small angular size of a distant galaxy cluster in the night sky. Though this picture encompasses a piece of the sky about the width of the bowl of the Big Dipper, the cluster is so far away it fills a sky area only 1/10th the diameter of the Full Moon. The cluster members are not visible because they are so much fainter than foreground stars.
[center] – A NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the farthest cluster of galaxies in the universe, located at a distance of 12 billion light-years. Because the light from these remote galaxies has taken 12 billion years to reach us, this image is a remarkable glimpse of the primeval universe, at it looked about two billion years after the Big Bang. The cluster contains 14 galaxies, the other objects are largely foreground galaxies. The galaxy cluster lies in front of quasar Q0000-263 in the constellation Sculptor. Presumably the brilliant core of an active galaxy, the quasar provides a beacon for searching for primordial galaxy clusters.
The image is the full field view of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera-2, taken on September 6, 1994. The 4.7-hour exposure reveals objects down to 28.5 magnitude.
[right] – This enlargement shows one of the farthest normal galaxies yet detected, (blob at center right) at a distance of 12 billion light-years (redshift of z=3.330). The galaxy lies 300 million light-years in front of the quasar Q0000-263 (z=4.11, large white blob and spike on left side of frame) and was detected because it absorbs some light from the quasar. The galaxy's spectrum reveals that vigorous star formation is taking place.
Credits
Duccio Macchetto (ESA/STScI), Mauro Giavalisco (STScI), and NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Q0000-263 |
| R.A. Position | 00h 3m 22.9s |
| Dec. Position | -26° 3' 16.8" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
