Space
NASA Hubble Space Telescope Captures Gorgeous, Colorful Image of the Evolving Universe
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Jun 04, 2014 08:24 AM EDT
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a new, gorgeous image of the evolving universe. Using colorful images captured by the telescope over the past 24 years, astronomers have assembled a comprehensive picture.
The image itself isn't just pretty to look at, though. It also provides the missing link in star formation. The picture is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Astronomers actually previously studied the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) in visible and near-infrared light in a series of images. The HUDF shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax. Now, though, researchers have used ultraviolet light to combine the full range of colors available to Hubble.
"The lack of information from ultraviolet light made studying galaxies in the HUDF like trying to understand the history of families without knowing about the grade-school children," said Harry Teplitz, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The addition of the ultraviolet fills in this missing range."
Ultraviolet light comes from the hottest, largest and youngest stars. By examining these wavelengths, the astronomers can see which galaxies are forming stars and where the stars are forming within these galaxies. In fact, studying ultraviolet images of galaxies in this intermediate time period shows astronomers how galaxies grew in size by forming small collections of very hot stars.
The image itself is made from 841 orbits of telescope viewing time. In fact, it contains about 10,000 galaxies, extending back in time to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang.
"Ultraviolet surveys like this one using the unique capability of Hubble are incredibly important in planning for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope," said Rogier Windhorst, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Hubble provides and invaluable ultraviolet-light dataset that researchers will need to combine with infrared data from Webb. This is the first really deep ultraviolet image to show the power of that combination."
The picture itself is also spectacular, revealing galaxies and stars against the backdrop of space. In this case, it goes to show that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words, revealing more information about our universe.
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First Posted: Jun 04, 2014 08:24 AM EDT
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a new, gorgeous image of the evolving universe. Using colorful images captured by the telescope over the past 24 years, astronomers have assembled a comprehensive picture.
The image itself isn't just pretty to look at, though. It also provides the missing link in star formation. The picture is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Astronomers actually previously studied the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) in visible and near-infrared light in a series of images. The HUDF shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax. Now, though, researchers have used ultraviolet light to combine the full range of colors available to Hubble.
"The lack of information from ultraviolet light made studying galaxies in the HUDF like trying to understand the history of families without knowing about the grade-school children," said Harry Teplitz, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The addition of the ultraviolet fills in this missing range."
Ultraviolet light comes from the hottest, largest and youngest stars. By examining these wavelengths, the astronomers can see which galaxies are forming stars and where the stars are forming within these galaxies. In fact, studying ultraviolet images of galaxies in this intermediate time period shows astronomers how galaxies grew in size by forming small collections of very hot stars.
The image itself is made from 841 orbits of telescope viewing time. In fact, it contains about 10,000 galaxies, extending back in time to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang.
"Ultraviolet surveys like this one using the unique capability of Hubble are incredibly important in planning for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope," said Rogier Windhorst, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Hubble provides and invaluable ultraviolet-light dataset that researchers will need to combine with infrared data from Webb. This is the first really deep ultraviolet image to show the power of that combination."
The picture itself is also spectacular, revealing galaxies and stars against the backdrop of space. In this case, it goes to show that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words, revealing more information about our universe.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone