Astronomy: Hubble Deep Field

At Christmas 1995 astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope on a single empty spot in the constellation Ursa Major, also known as the Big Bear. This empty piece of space with the width of a coin at 25 meters was viewed for ten days as an experiment while astronomers were enjoying their holidays. After ten days this deepest-ever-view of the Universe (the Hubble Deep Field) dazzeled astronomers with at least 1500 galaxies in various stages of their lifecycle. The pictures of this Hubble Deep Field are considered representative for our Universe, because the Universe statistically looks largely the same in all directions. Besides the classical spiral and elliptical shaped galaxies, there is a variety of other galaxy shapes and colors that are important clues to understanding the evolution of the Universe. Some of the galaxies may have formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang. Related subjects >> The Universe >> Spacemap: from the Local Group of galaxies to Earth >> Hubble Space Telescope

Deep Field North, Christmas 1995, assembled from 342 separate exposures < JPG image 700 X 780 pixels > Later Deep Field South was assembled from Hubble pictures. < JPG image 720 x 900 pixels >