Posted on 09/26/2012 7:22:19 PM PDT by lbryce
Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe.
Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full moon.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time.
The new full-color XDF image is even more sensitive, and contains about 5,500 galaxies even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.
WANT.
I caught that. You’re talking to yourself.
So your saying that because there is no evidence of others being there is proof that they really are there?
There's no such thing as a true static in the physical universe. All things are in a state of motion or change of some sort.
It truly is. It's hard not to go philosophic when discussing our magnificent universe.
Have always wondered what folding space and time would do to space and time. Does it get complicated or does it simply pass as normal? If gravity is negligible (as is) time and space could fold if there was no electromagnetic field fluctuations? Dang, starting to become complicated again. Would stars simply pass by one another in that folding of space and no impacts could occur because the folding would actually be an illusion? Past would become the present or would the present become the past or would it all evolve to be nothing but future consummating itself in the present?
Now there is a complicated frontier men will spend years attempting to comprehend!
The moons are spectacular!
Your statement is correct.
I think we have.
There are fields of green glass scattered here and there around the world. How'd they get there? They're older than human civilization, and there's no natural process to explain their existence.
We humans know how to make fields of green glass now. I think that humans learned it before, and lost it all because of our collective insanity. Let's hope we make it through that phase this time.
Have long thought your thought.
It's just as well. I just checked, and all the beer is gone. Buuurp! ;-)
LOL ... next time don’t offer then.
As always, the deep field boggles the mind.
Not really. I'm saying that just because we haven't been introduced, doesn't mean we don't have neighbors.
When European explorers first landed on Easter Island, the natives thought they were the only humans on earth. Same parallel. Just because we don't have the means to achieve interstellar travel, and no explorers have made their presence known, doesn't mean that we're all alone in the universe.
It comes down to simple logic. The fact that life arose on this one planet argues for the fact that it's possible for it to arise on others. Given the unfathomable vastness of the universe, and the nearly incalculable numbers of stars and planetary systems out there, it's a virtual certainty that life is common and abundant throughout the universe.
It's just that the distances between life bearing planets are unthinkably large. Only civilizations that have mastered faster-than-light-speed travel, even have a chance of finding intelligent life beyond their own solar systems. We're a long way from having such technology, but we'll get there. When we do, we're going to meet the neighbors.
Of course within the Hubble Deep Field we're seeing a succession of square images, beginning from very tiny (grain of sand at arm's length size) to enormous (millions of light years across) at the distant end.
Sorry. I really did think we had some, but some guy kept me going about stars, planets, galaxies and so-forth, and I guess I just lost track of the beer! LOL
The XDF image separated into three planes. Fully mature galaxies are in the foreground plane. The universe is rich in evolving, nearly mature galaxies from 5 to 9 billion years ago. Beyond 9 billion years the universe is awash in compact galaxies and proto-galaxies, blazing with young stars.
Looking at the time lapse, it appears one could surmise there has been a lot less creation taking place in the recent past. A run on matters early and little matter left in the recent past? Great picture, btw.
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