"My God! It's Full of Galaxies!

The Hubble Space Telescope recently took another one of those "deep field" images, pointing at an unremarkable patch of the sky for long enough - and revealing thousands of galaxies.

Feast your eyes: www.nasa.gov...

Nearly as deep as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which contains approximately 10,000 galaxies, this incredible image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals thousands of colorful galaxies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This vibrant view of the early universe was captured as part of the Frontier Fields campaign, which aims to investigate galaxy clusters in more detail than ever before, and to explore some of the most distant galaxies in the universe.

Galaxy clusters are massive. They can have a tremendous impact on their surroundings, with their immense gravity warping and amplifying the light from more distant objects. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, can help astronomers to see galaxies that would otherwise be too faint, aiding our hunt for residents of the primordial universe.

MACS J1149.5+2223 is a galaxy cluster located approximately five billion light-years away. In 2012, it helped astronomers uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever discovered. Light from the young galaxy, magnified 15 times by the galaxy cluster, first shone when our 13.7-billion-year-old universe was a mere 500 million years old — just 3.6 percent of its current age!

In 2014 and 2015, MACS J1149.5+2223 was observed as part of the Frontier Fields campaign. While one of Hubble’s cameras observed the galaxy cluster itself, another simultaneously captured the spectacular scene pictured above, of an “unremarkable” patch of space. Referred to as a parallel field, this image — when compared to other similar fields — will help astronomers understand how the universe looks in different directions.

www.nasa.gov...

These kind of images speak directly to my heart and mind. This is the universe we live in, with billions of galaxies, that each have billions of stars and lots of potentially habitable (and potentially inhabited) planets. To believe that we're alone in this universe is a folly.

I love it how in this and other deep-field images, many galaxies are visibly red-shifted, serving as a visual evidence of the universe's expansion.

Here are some crops from the full image, showing a colourful "kaleidoscope" of galaxies:





Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to travel to those galaxies and visit various planets there, maybe even inhabited by our "brothers in intelligence"?

Oh yes it would. Don't believe we're from this galaxy/plane/universe to begin with. This is entering into the bottom without memory to shine light and grow back up.

I see infinite Family, infinite heavens, infinite worlds and work stations, infinite learning platforms, infinite dolphins, whales, people, children!

Infinite Hero's! Those who are growing up in the Power of Love.

a reply to: wildespace

It actually hurts my mind trying to comprehend just how vast the space we are a part of really is.

It's illogical to think we're alone when you think how many galaxies there are that we can "see"

It's a very humbling thing to realise just how small and insignificant we really are in the vastness of space but it's also reassuring that there's probably others far far away thinking the same thing and looking back in the opposite direction

a reply to: wildespace

When I look at images like this I get a twinge of the homesickness I haven't felt since I went to 4th grade summer camp. Sappy but true.

Awesome, as usual... thanks.

If one looks reeeeeeeally closely, one can just make out the Hubble looking back at itself... just to the right of center, in that look alike Milky Way... I would post a screen shot if I were at my desk top ... or knew how.... heh.

(and as this IS ATS, just a reminder that I am making a feeble jest)

As much as I love the Hubble deep field images, I think, given the opportunity, the James Webb Telescope will increase the number of visible galaxies from the 100/150 billion mark to around 500 billion or more. The near future is looking bright!

originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: wildespace

It actually hurts my mind trying to comprehend just how vast the space we are a part of really is.

It's illogical to think we're alone when you think how many galaxies there are that we can "see"

It's a very humbling thing to realise just how small and insignificant we really are in the vastness of space but it's also reassuring that there's probably others far far away thinking the same thing and looking back in the opposite direction

Yet the Fermi paradox is a real thing. It's terrifying whether it's right or wrong!

a reply to: wildespace

What's really amazing is that the camera was focused in one direction on one area that probably equals less than 1% of the VISIBLE universe, and we get this beautiful photo.

I don't know if space is finite or infinite, but at least in our simple perception it is definitely infinite.

I'll admit to being a moved by those pictures. Tears in my eyes. It's beautiful and completely overwhelming. Wow... Wow...wow!!!

Thanks for posting.

Space is big.
Really, really big.

originally posted by: Phage
Space is big.
Really, really big.

Understatement of the week! It's friggin' ginormous. Bath robes and all!

a reply to: MarsIsRed

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
en.wikiquote.org...

a reply to: Phage

And the irony is that I live friggin miles from the chemist!

a reply to: MarsIsRed

Peanuts.

But big peanuts! Vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big peanuts!!!

a reply to: wildespace

As if all of this isn't mind-boggling enough, we can see "stuff" out to the same distance (time) in every direction. 13.7 Billion light years across total. It doesn't become sparse toward the edges, so we're not in "the center" where the Big Bang occurred, and those edges we can see aren't "the end." It's just the limit of the "observable" universe. Our 13.7 Billion light years universe could be 0.000000001%, or even less, of the total of all existence.

Or, not being an actual cosmologist or astrophysicist, I might just not get it lol. But that's my understanding.

Dear god....

My stomach just lerched in one of those fraction of a second moments of realisation (before its gone).

That is a gorgeous image that fills me with as much fear and sadness as wonder.

a reply to: wildespace

I refuse to believe that we are the only "intelligent" sentient lifeforms in the universe. Interestingly enough the White House has had 2 incidents in the last week where msm asked the press secretary about alien life.

As for these photos I love em. We think we are important yet when compared to the overall pictures of the universe we are insignificant.

I've been thinking about why the universe is as large as it is and I keep coming back to the same answer. If the universe were not as big as it is then there would be no point in wanting to explore beyond our solar system. I think humanity would stagnate.

We need a goal that is almost impossible to obtain in order to keep us moving forward.

a reply to: wildespace
I can't find the specs for the image. What's the angular FOV?