This is an artist's impression of how the very early universe (less than 1 billion years old) might have looked when it went through a voracious onset of star formation, converting primordial hydrogen into myriad stars at an unprecedented rate. Back then the sky would have looked markedly different from the sea of quiescent galaxies around us today. The sky is ablaze with primeval starburst galaxies; giant elliptical and spiral galaxies have yet to form. Within the starburst galaxies, bright knots of hot blue stars come and go like bursting fireworks shells. Regions of new starbirth glow intensely red under a torrent of ultraviolet radiation. The most massive stars self-detonate as supernovas, which explode across the sky like a string of firecrackers. A foreground starburst galaxy at lower right is sculpted with hot bubbles from supernova explosions and torrential stellar winds. Unlike today there is very little dust in these galaxies, because the heavier elements have not yet been cooked up through nucleosynthesis in stars. Recent analysis of Hubble Space Telescope deep sky images supports the theory that the first stars in the universe appeared in an abrupt eruption of star formation, rather than at a gradual pace.
Credits
Painting Credit: Adolf Schaller for STScI| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Early Universe |
| Object Description | Star Formation, Early Universe |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Technical facts about the news release associated with this image: Principal Astronomers: K. Lanzetta (SUNY Stony Brook), H.-W. Chen (Carnigie Observatories), A. Fernandez-Soto (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy), S. Pascarelle and N. Yahata (SUNY Stony Brook) About the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) R.A.: 12h 36m 49.5s Dec.: +62° 12' 58.0" Constellation: Ursa Major Exposure Dates: December 1995 to present Filters: F110W, F160W, F222M, F300W, F450W, F606W, F814W About the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) R.A:. 22h 32m 56.0s Dec.: -60° 33' 00.0" Constellation: Tucana Exposure Dates: December 1995 to present Filters: F110W, F160W, F222M, F300W, F450W, F606W, F814W |
| 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. |
