What a difference 11 billion years makes, as can be seen in these two comparative views of our Milky Way galaxy. The top view shows how our galaxy looks today; the bottom view, how it appeared in the remote past. This photo illustration is based on a Hubble Space Telescope survey of evolving Milky Way-type galaxies.
[Top View] – The current night sky is dominated by the white glow of myriad middle-aged stars along the lane of the Milky Way. Interstellar "pollution" from thick dust lanes can be seen threading through the long band of stars. They are interspersed with a few pinkish emission nebulae from ongoing star formation. Thousands of stars appear as pinpoints of light throughout the sky.
[Bottom View] – This is an imaginary view of our young Milky Way as it may have appeared 11 billion years ago, as seen from the surface of a hypothetical planet. The night sky looks markedly different than the view today. The Milky Way's disk and central bulge of stars are smaller and dimmer because the galaxy is in an early phase of construction. The heavens are ablaze with a firestorm of new star formation, seen in the pinkish nebulae glowing from stars still wrapped inside their natal cocoons. The handful of stars visible in the night sky are blue and bright because they are young.
The graphic of today's Milky Way was based on an all-sky image from Axel Mellinger and the Finkbeiner all-sky H-alpha survey. The illustration of the early Milky Way was constructed from the all-sky image from Axel Mellinger and Robert Gendler's image of the M33 galaxy.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)| About The Data | |
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| Data Description | This release is based on Hubble data from proposals and : P. van Dokkum (Yale University), C. Steidel (Caltech), H.-W. Rix (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), M. Kriek (University of California, Berkeley), G. Kauffmann (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), G. Brammer (European Southern Observatory), D. Erb (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), M. Franx (Leiden University), N. Schreiber (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), X. Fan (University of Arizona), R. Quadri, I. Labbe, and P. McCarthy (Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington), D. Marchesini (Tufts University), A. Pasquali (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), K. Whitaker (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), J. Hennawi (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), D. Wake (Yale University), and S. Patel (Leiden University). The science teams comprise the following: Patel et al. Paper: S. Patel, M. Fumagalli, and M. Franx (Leiden University), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), A. van der Wel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.), J. Leja (Yale University), I. Labbe (Leiden University), G. Brammer (European Southern Observatory), R. Skelton and I. Momcheva (Yale University), K. Whitaker (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), B. Lundgren (University of Wisconsin, Madison), A. Muzzin (Leiden University), R. Quadri (Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington), E. Nelson (Yale University), D. Wake (University of Wisconsin, Madison), and H.-W. Rix (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics). van Dokkum et al. Paper: P. van Dokkum, J. Leja, and E. Nelson (Yale University), S. Patel (Leiden University), R. Skelton and I. Momcheva (Yale University), G. Brammer (European Southern Observatory), K. Whitaker (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), B. Lundgren (University of Wisconsin, Madison), M. Fumagalli (Leiden University), C. Conroy (University of California, Santa Cruz), N. Schreiber (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), M. Fumagalli (Leiden University), M. Kriek (University of California, Berkeley), I. Labbe (Leiden University), D. Marchesini (Tufts University), H.-W. Rix and A. van der Wel (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), and S. Wuyts (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics). |
| About The Object | |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
