Deepest image of the universe ever taken - 5500 galaxies in 2 arcminutes in size!!

Called eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) this picture is the result of 10 years of work from Hubble, NASA, ESA and XDF/HUDF09 teams.

Exposure time was of 22.5 days (2 million seconds); the picture is a composite view of separate exposures acquired by the ACS and WFC3/IR instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image from the eight different filters used by the two instruments.

What did the first galaxies look like? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope has just finished taking the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light. Pictured above, the XDF shows a sampling of some of the oldest galaxies ever seen, galaxies that formed just after the dark ages, 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only a few percent of its present age. The Hubble Space Telescope's ACS camera and the infrared channel of the WFPC3 camera took the image. Combining efforts spread over 10 years, the XDF is more sensitive, in some colors, than the original Hubble Deep Field (HDF), the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) completed in 2004, and the HUDF Infrared completed in 2009. Astronomers the world over will likely study the XDF for years to come to better understand how stars and galaxies formed in the early universe.

Source

Full extra-large picture (1.63Mb) can be downloaded from the Hubble site

5500 galaxies in 2 arcminutes!! Wow

The deep field images are absolutely mind-blowing. We have no way to even begin to conceive of the enormity of the universe or what it may hold.

Looking at that picture, I can't help but think that somewhere, on a planet orbiting a star somewhere in even one of those galaxies, people (or the equivalent) are debating whether or not they are alone. If life is the rule rather than the exception, our universe must be teeming with life. Not to even mention other universes...

reply to post by elevenaugust


Awesome.

The earth is spining around the sun at 30mps, the sun around the galaxy at around 220 kmps and our galaxy is speeding through space at 1000kmps and now I know there are 5500 galaxies out there too!

I am putting my seat belt on.

S and F.

And people can look at things like this and still think we are alone in the universe. Too bad we may never survive to explore it.

I notice they don't look particularly clustery. We're in a crowd of galaxies that are like the night sky with its stars.

I can't conceive of how far away the farthest galaxy is. Andromeda alone is 2.5 million light years away, and it's just on a collision course with us.

reply to post by atlasastro


i think that that is just the size of your thumb at arms length
as there are billions upon billions of billions of galaxies
in the visible univers

reply to post by elevenaugust


I wonder if our own galaxy is in there somewhere that would be super cool

reply to post by maryhinge


Its mind boggling isn't it.

Absolutely and magnificently mind boggling.

when you make yourself recognize that those aren't solar systems, those are galaxies........

The image is 2.3 arcminutes by 2 arcminutes in size.. To try to have a view of what it looks like comparatively to known objects, the moon size if approximately of 30 arcminutes (1/2 degree)

Here's a little sketch I've done using the perigee-apogee moon comparison map:



To get a rough estimate of the angular size of objects in space, you can go out on clear night when the moon is up. Extend your arm towards the sky. Your fist, at arms length, covers about 10 degrees of the sky, your thumb covers about 2 degrees, and your little finger covers about 1 degree. If you look at the Moon, it should take up about 1/2 a degree in the sky. The Big Dipper should be about 20 degrees (two fists at arms length) from one end to the other.

To cover the whole celestial sphere, we must consider the number of square arcminutes in a complete sphere which is approximately 148,510,660.498 square arcminutes.

I'll let you do the estimation for the possible numbers of galaxies in the whole celestial sphere....

5500 galaxies ??
Holy crap... But what a sight. Instantly made it my background.

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth.

That would equate to billions of galaxies.

There are only 5,500 in the picture the OP provided. It's absolutely mind blowing!!

Originally posted by atlasastro
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

Awesome.

The earth is spining around the sun at 30mps, the sun around the galaxy at around 220 kmps and our galaxy is speeding through space at 1000kmps and now I know there are 5500 galaxies out there too!

I am putting my seat belt on.

S and F.

That's just one tiny region of the known universe. Move the telescope an inch or so and we'd get more galaxies, another inch, more galaxies. And this is only of the KNOWN universe. What's beyond the known must be positively mind-blowing!

WOW

something about a grain of sand keeps circulating around my brain!
im jealous of future generations!
what will they see and learn a thousand years from now? (if we are still existing then)

Originally posted by maryhinge
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

I wonder if our own galaxy is in there somewhere that would be super cool

This would be impossible. For our galaxy to be in it we would have to be able to make it outside of our galaxy and then take the picture.

reply to post by elevenaugust


I believe that number would be 4.08404E+11. Give or take a few.

408,404,315,000 galaxies.

Almost half a trillion.

reply to post by buster2010


We are so not alone. We have never been alone. We just need to get over the illusion that just because we can't see something with our naked eye , it isn't there and does not exist.

There is no better way I can think of to spend eternity than exploring the seemingly infinite.

Ive always wondered if we are just in a isolated part of space?

Maybe space could be layed out similar to towns/cities/country

We are in an isolated country part of the universe, but then you could go to another part that is rammed with life, maybe some solar systems with 2 or 3 planets that have life, maybe with another solar system full of life a years journey away, who knows?

To anyone asking: "Are we alone in this universe?"

Look at the picture and answer that question for yourself. 5500 galaxies in one small picture. Just one, out of many that compose the observable range of the universe. A plethora of opportunities for life to grow. What do YOU think?