Hubble unveils a colorful view of the universe

Phys.Org ^ | 06-03-2014 | Provided by ESA/Hubble Information Centre

[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.

Explore further: NASA Hubble sees sparring antennae galaxies

[Telepathic Intruder]

The Higgs boson is now a part of the standard model of particles. There may in fact be others. I tend to think that dark matter is weakly interacting massive particles. They cluster and attract normal matter gravitationally, but pass through normal matter like it’s not even there. The room you’re sitting in could be filled with the stuff but impossible to detect by any conventional means.

[Red Badger]

A never ending journey....................

[Red Badger]

Not necessarily................

[Red Badger]

Algore? Izzat you?????......................

[McGruff]

Still going

[Red Badger]

How Great Thou Art
Words: Carl G. Boberg

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the *worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the *rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Refrain

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Refrain

And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Refrain

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then *I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, “My God, how great thou art!”

---

Author’s original words are “works,” “mighty” and “shall I bow” (Word changes approved for use in North America only.)

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/o/w/how_great_Thou_art.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Great_Thou_Art

[Red Badger]

And why do they always abduct the stupid ugly people?

Law of averages.................

[Red Badger]

I wish I had an Encyclopedia Galactica with all the answers.

You do. It's called 'The Bible'........................

[aruanan]

It would not surprise me if there was life in every single one of those galaxies

It should surprise you that there is life in even a single one of them, given the standard explanation of things. Here's how you should look at it from that standpoint: The chances that a single celled organism could, through natural selection of random mutations, develop into a world full of life forms such as found here is essentially little different from zero.

The chances that inorganic chemical reactions could result in the formation of a self-replicating single cell are such that, by comparison, the chances that that single cell could result in a world full of life forms such as found here are a dead certainty.

For something like that to happen even a second time you have to have the improbably of the first time squared and so on for each successive time. If life arose here on earth strictly by chance and naturalistic processes, there has not been enough time since the big bang, if there ever was one, or enough places with even near to the right conditions for it to have happened a second time.

All observations, based on a naturalistic scenario, point to the likeliest scenario that we, as sentient beings, are entirely alone in the universe and that we will never find anything even as "simple" (ha ha ha) as a bacterium anywhere else.

[aruanan]

You do. It's called 'The Bible'........................

The Bible, though it contains some general background of creation, is, as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, in the same relationship as a pamphlet on the history of Hamtramck compared to everything ever written about world history, probably even less. It doesn't mean it isn't true. It just isn't exhaustive, either with respect to the universe at large or to the earth in particular, much less anything to do outside its stated scope.

[Hebrews 11:6]

I agree, with one exception, with your post #90. You’re quite right that the Bible is far from exhaustive—it gives us only (1) information that most people in most eras would comprehend and (2) just what we need for salvation. But the Bible goes well beyond “some general background of creation,” with twenty-five or so chapter-length or longer specific (and now scientifically proven) descriptions of creation; beyond Genesis there are important substantive passages in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, etc., etc.

[MrB]

There are no lines... :)

[roadcat]

Okay. Gravity is as yet unseen. So is dark matter. How does gravity work, and attract normal matter? Check out this article:

http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/06/dark-matter/

“… the physicists propose that dark matter, an invisible form of matter that makes up 85 percent of the all the matter in the universe, may be made out of a type of basic particle called the Majorana fermion. The particle’s existence was predicted in the 1930’s but has stubbornly resisted detection.

A number of physicists have suggested that dark matter is made from Majorana particles, but Scherrer and Ho have performed detailed calculations that demonstrate that these particles are uniquely suited to possess a rare, donut-shaped type of electromagnetic field called an anapole. This field gives them properties that differ from those of particles that possess the more common fields possessing two poles (north and south, positive and negative) and explains why they are so difficult to detect.”

“… Scientists hypothesize that dark matter cannot be seen in telescopes because it does not interact very strongly with light and other electromagnetic radiation. In fact, astronomical observations have basically ruled out the possibility that dark matter particles carry electrical charges.”

There’s a lot of work being done over the last fifty years trying to figure out this stuff. A lot has been written. Einstein couldn’t figure it out. But a breakthrough could be imminent (I hope).

[Telepathic Intruder]

It’s been said for a long time that dark matter could be something similar to the neutrino, but with more mass. Neutrinos can’t clump near galaxy clusters because they just fly away at the speed of light. It’s also been suggested that dark matter may not even exist; we just don’t fully understand how gravity works over long distances. I was reading an article about dark matter once (my doctor just happened to have a Scientific American mag in his waiting room), that claimed if dark matter exists, we are in a desert zone of it. Apparently they can’t find any trace of its gravitational influence in the surrounding stars out to a few thousand light years.

[Starstruck]

What I want know is how a thinking person can look at that and say “Yup, we are alone in the universe”.

Depends on whether God wanted us to be alone or not.