Hey, check out this pic. As nice as it looks just looking at it, becomes amazing when you know just what it is. First off, there is no doubt about it being a Hubble shot. Or that it is an extremely narrow shot. But the Caltech in Pasadena astronomers who took the photo used one of Hubble's greatest abilities of being able to see very deep into the universe. This shot covers less real-estate than a full moon but peers back into the universe to within just a few hundred million years after the big bang.
As noteworthy as the photo is, it is ground breaking for another reason. For most of its operational life, Hubble has explored the visible and near infra-red spectrum. Recently astronomer Harry Teplitz has had Hubble look deep into space using using its ability to photograph in the ultraviolet wavelengths. From the article:
- "Ultraviolet is where we see the hottest light from the youngest stars," said Teplitz, who led a new study called "Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field." "It is a direct measure of star formation."
The ability to photograph in the ultraviolet means that now scientists will be able to study star formation from 5 to 10 billion years ago when the bulk of star formation to place.
You can see a much better detailed pic at the LA Science Now page HERE as well as read the complete article.
2 comments:
I have always been just plain blown away by the Hubble Deep Field pictures. There are maybe 400 billion stars in this galaxy alone. There are at least as many galaxies, if not more, than there are stars in our Milky Way. Are there any sapient beings among this vast array that may exist, have existed, or will exist in a future time?
The fact that we can even imagine such a thing reminds of a quote from George Harrison... "It's all in the mind, you know."
Damn BTON....
Hubble to Harrison...Yep, I will take a knee for that. Fits so well with the final episode of cosmos this evening.
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