This image reveals 28 tiny galaxies uncovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The puny galaxies, shown in the postage-stamp-sized images, existed 9 billion years ago and are brimming with star birth.
The dwarf galaxies are typically a hundred times less massive than the Milky Way galaxy but are churning out stars at such a furious pace that their stellar content would double in just 10 million years. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys spied the galaxies in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field, or UDS (part of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey). The galaxies' locations in the UDS field are marked by circles in the large image.
The galaxies stood out in the Hubble images because the energy from all the new stars caused the oxygen in the gas surrounding them to light up like a bright neon sign. The rapid star birth likely represents an important phase in the formation of dwarf galaxies, the most common galaxy type in the cosmos.
The galaxies are among 69 dwarf galaxies found in the UDS and other fields. The images were made from observations taken between August and December 2010.
Credits
NASA, ESA, A. van der Wel (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), H. Ferguson and A. Koekemoer (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.), and the CANDELS team| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field and Distant galaxies |
| Object Description | Galactic survey (top) and distant galaxies (bottom) |
| R.A. Position | 02h 17m 24.0s |
| Dec. Position | -5° 12' 0.0" |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal : S. Faber (University of California, Santa Cruz), et al. The science team for this release is led by A. van der Wel (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), and the images were produced by A. Koekemoer (STScI). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR |
| Filters | ACS/WFC: F606W (V) and F814W (I) WFC3/IR: F125W (J) and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope using different filters that isolate broad wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F606W (V) Green: F814W (I) Red: F125W (J) + F160W (H) |
| 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. |
