Hubble image archive
Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2009-2010 and UDFj-39546284
The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep-field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2011
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2011-05-2814-image
The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep-field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers believe it is 13.2 billion light-years away.
The most distant objects in the universe appear extremely red because their light is stretched to longer, redder wavelengths by the expansion of the universe. This object is at an extremely faint magnitude of 29, which is 500 million times fainter that the faintest stars seen by the human eye.
The dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the Big Bang, only four percent of the universe's current age. It is tiny and considered a building block of today's giant galaxies. Over one hundred such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way galaxy.
Follow-up spectroscopic observations with the planned James Webb Space Telescope later in this decade will be needed to definitively confirm the object's distance.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field infrared exposures were taken in 2009 and 2010, and required a total of 111 orbits or 8 days of observing. The new Wide Field Camera 3 has the sharpness and near-infrared light sensitivity that matches the Advanced Camera for Surveys' optical images and allows for such a faint object to be selected from the thousands of other galaxies in the incredibly deep images of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.
Credits
NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 TeamImage Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Hubble Ultra Deep Field, HUDF, and UDFj-39546284 |
| Object Description | Cosmological Survey and distant galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 03h 32m 38.99s |
| Dec. Position | -27° 47' 29.04" |
| Constellation | Fornax |
| Dimensions | The HUDF image is roughly 2.2 arcminutes wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), M. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), M. Franx (Leiden University), I. Labbé (Carnegie Institution of Washington), D. Magee (University of California, Santa Cruz), P. Oesch (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), M. Stiavelli (STScI), M. Trenti (University of Colorado, Boulder), and P. van Dokkum (Yale University). The science team includes: R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), I. Labbé (Carnegie Institution of Washington), P. Oesch (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), M. Trenti (University of Colorado, Boulder), M. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), M. Franx (Leiden University), M. Stiavelli (STScI), V. González and D. Magee (University of California, Santa Cruz), and L. Bradley (STScI). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | August 26, 2009 - September 14, 2010, Exposure Time: 87 hours |
| Filters | F105W (Y), F125W (J), and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Three filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges in the near infrared. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F105W (Y) Green: F125W (J) Red: F160W (H) |
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov