Gazing deep into the universe, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spied a menagerie of galaxies. Located within the same tiny region of space, these numerous galaxies display an assortment of unique characteristics. Some are big; some are small. A few are relatively nearby, but most are far away. Hundreds of these faint galaxies have never been seen before until their light was captured by Hubble.
This image represents a typical view of our distant universe. In taking this picture, Hubble is looking down a long corridor of galaxies stretching billions of light-years distant in space, corresponding to looking billions of years back in time. The field shown in this picture covers a relatively small patch of sky, a fraction of the area of the full moon, yet it is richly populated with a variety of galaxy types.
A handful of large fully formed galaxies are scattered throughout the image. These galaxies are easy to see because they are relatively close to us. Several of the galaxies are spirals with flat disks that are oriented edge-on or face-on to our line of sight, or somewhere in between. Elliptical galaxies and more exotic galaxies with bars or tidal tails are also visible.
Many galaxies that appear small in this image are simply farther away. These visibly smaller galaxies are so distant that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We are seeing these galaxies, therefore, when they were much younger than the larger, nearby galaxies in the image. One red galaxy to the lower left of the bright central star is acting as a lens to a large galaxy directly behind it. Light from the farther galaxy is bent around the nearby galaxy's nucleus to form a distorted arc.
Sprinkled among the thousands of galaxies in this image are at least a dozen foreground stars that reside in our Milky Way Galaxy. The brightest of these foreground stars is the red object in the center of the image. The stars are easily discernable from galaxies because of their diffraction spikes, long cross-hair-like features that look like they are emanating from the centers of the stars. Diffraction spikes are an image artifact caused by starlight traveling through the telescope's optical system.
This image is a composite of multiple exposures of a single field taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The image, taken in September 2003, was a bonus picture, taken when one of the other Hubble cameras was snapping photos for a science program. This image took nearly 40 hours to complete and is one of the longest exposures ever taken by Hubble.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);Acknowledgment: J. Blakeslee (JHU) and R. Thompson (University of Arizona)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Galaxy Field in Fornax |
| Object Description | Parallel Field to the HUDF NICMOS Observations |
| R.A. Position | 03h 32m 37.99s |
| Dec. Position | -27° 56' 52.99" |
| Constellation | Fornax |
| Dimensions | This image is 3.5 arcminutes across. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST parallel observations of the HUDF from the following proposal: : R. Thompson (U. Arizona), R. Bouwens (UCSC), M. Dickinson (NOAO), D. Eisenstein and X. Fan (U. Arizona), M. Franx (U. Leiden), G. Illingworth (UCSC) , M. Rieke (U. Arizona), and A. Riess (STScI). The science team for this image release includes: J.P. Blakeslee (JHU), K.C. Zekser, and N. Benitez (JHU), M. Franx (STScI), R. L. White (JHU/STScI), H.C. Ford (JHU), R.J. Bouwens (Lick Obs./UCSC), L. Infante (U. Catolica de Chile), N.J. Cross (JHU), G.Hertling (U. Catolica de Chile), B.P. Holden and G.D. Illingworth (Lick Obs./UCSC), V. Motta (U. Catolica de Chile), F. Menanteau and G.R. Meurer (JHU), M. Postman (JHU/STScI), P. Rosati (ESO), and W. Zheng (JHU). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | September 2003, Exposure Time: 39.6 hours |
| Filters | F435W (B), F606W (V), F775W (i), and F850LP (z) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Blue: F435W (B) Green: F606W (V) Red: F775W (i) + F850LP (z) |
| Compass Image |  |
| 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. |
