Posted on 06/03/2014 1:04:30 PM PDT by Red Badger
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured the most comprehensive picture ever assembled of the evolving universe—and one of the most colorful. The study is called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field project.
Prior to this survey, astronomers were in a curious position. They knew a lot about star formation occurring in nearby galaxies thanks to UV telescope facilities such as NASA's Galex observatory, which operated from 2003 to 2013. And, thanks to Hubble's near-infrared and visible capability, they had also studied star birth in the most distant galaxies. We see these distant galaxies in their most primitive stages due to the vast amount of time it takes their light to reach us.
However, between 5 and 10 billion light-years away from us—corresponding to a time period when most of the stars in the Universe were born—there was a lack of the data needed to fully understand star formation. The hottest, most massive and youngest stars, which emit light in the ultraviolet, were often neglected as subjects of direct observation, leaving a significant gap in our knowledge of the cosmic timeline.
The addition of ultraviolet data to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 gives astronomers access to direct observations of regions of unobscured star formation and may help us to fully understand how stars formed. By observing at these wavelengths, researchers get a direct look at which galaxies are forming stars and, just as importantly, where the stars are forming. This enables astronomers to understand how galaxies like the Milky Way grew in size from small collections of very hot stars to the massive structures they are today.
The patch of sky in this image has been previously studied by astronomers in a series of visible and near-infrared exposures taken from 2004 to 2009: the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Now, with the addition of ultraviolet light, they have combined the full range of colours available to Hubble, stretching all the way from ultraviolet to near- infrared light. The resulting image, made from 841 orbits of telescope viewing time, contains approximately 10 000 galaxies, extending back to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang.
Since the Earth's atmosphere filters most ultraviolet light, this work can only be accomplished with a space-based telescope like Hubble. Ultraviolet surveys like this are incredibly important in planning for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as Hubble is the only telescope currently able to obtain the ultraviolet data that researchers will need to combine with infrared data from JWST.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken from 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3.
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Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured the most comprehensive picture ever assembled of the evolving universe -- and one of the most colorful. The study is called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field project. Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)
Space & astronomy ping!....................
I’d say God is a good painter!! And his rainbows are awesome!!
.... and He never paints outside the lines!................
Infinity makes me angry.
Now this photo is 10,000 galaxies.
The width of field is very, very small, and is taken in a sector that has few nearby stars to blot out the light.
So, there must be millions, if not billions of galaxies out there we’ve never seen.......................
It’ll end sooner or later.................
What I want know is how a thinking person can look at that and say “Yup, we are alone in the universe”.
Not sure which boggles the mind more. That pic and the sheer awesomeness of it or the arrogance behind us being alone in it all.
What makes me angry is I am stuck here and not “out there”.
Do you know how many stars you can count under the best conditions? About 2,500 to 3,000. But that faintly glowing band of light you see in the further distance is the combined light of probably a billion stars. This, however, is still only a tiny fraction of a percentage of the total number of stars in our galaxy.
Attempting to imagine the hugeness of the universe (is hugeness a word?) is just as much an exercise in futility. A million earths could fit inside the sun. If the sun were the size of a marble (1 cm across), just the nearest star would be another marble 180 miles away. And there are about 400 billion stars just in our galaxy. And there are about a trillion galaxies within the visible universe.
Billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars within them.
There must be a billion earths out there or more...........................
And yet we are doomed to be trapped in our own solar system for the foreseeable future. That is until someone can figure out a way around the galaxy that doesn’t take centuries and huge amounts of energy...............
God’s awesomeness, on display, in color.
Our best scientists have yet to create one self-sustaining fusion reaction of more than 5 seconds. This picture shows that God has trillions of these that have been operating for billions of years.
We used to get blitzed and joke like 60s liberals about ‘Infinity....like wow man” when I was a young lad. But when you seriously ponder the number of stars, much less planets...Ouch. Serious brain hurt.
There have to be MANY earths out there. VERY many.
I’m afraid that is an exercise in futility as well. There are no short cuts to the basic laws of physics, I think. It will take a huge amount of energy and a long time for just one trip to the nearest star, based on what we know (and apart from popular sci fi). I used to think “why are the stars so far away from each other?” Well, it’s actually a good thing they are, or they would be crashing into each other all the time. Not good for us.
An infinite number of universes?
An infinite number of identicalineveryway universes?
Now I am really angry!
Recent reliable estimates of the total number of galaxies in the portion of our universe that is observable are in the range of hundreds of billions of galaxies, averaging roughly two hundred billion stars per galaxy.
We need an improbability engine.
If we could manipulate time, we could go anywhere.....................
If wishes were horses.......
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