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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, or HUDF, is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, composited from Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a period from September 3, 2003 through January 16, 2004. It is the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light, looking back in time more than 13 billion years. The HUDF contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The patch of sky in which the galaxies reside (just one-tenth the diameter of the full moon as viewed from Earth) was chosen because it had a low density of bright stars in the near-field. Although most of the targets visible in the Hubble image can also be seen at infrared wavelengths by ground-based telescopes, Hubble is the only instrument which can make observations of these distant targets at visible wavelengths. Located southwest of Orion in the Southern-Hemisphere constellation Fornax (...), the image covers 36.7 square arcminutes. This is smaller than a 1 mm by 1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky.
In total, the image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days for the ACS and 4.5 days for the NICMOS.
According to the Big Bang theory, the universe has a finite age, so we might expect very distant (and hence very young) galaxies to look different from the typical older galaxies we see today. This is indeed seen in the HUDF, although some argue that the difference is partly a result of the unusual wavelength used for the HUDF (corresponding to ultraviolet light from the rest-frame of the most distant galaxies). The Hubble Ultra Deep Field also shows more evidence for galaxy formation and merging than in local studies, as expected for the early universe.
[ Regarding a particularly redshifted galaxy: ] The galaxy is believed to be about as far away as the most distant galaxies and quasars now known. The light reaching us today began its journey when the universe was only about 800 million years old.
(...)The whole sky contains 12.7 million times more area than the Ultra Deep Field. To observe the entire sky would take almost 1 million years of uninterrupted observing.(...)
What that basically means is that this picture is, in its entirety, about 50 times smaller than the apparent surface of the Moon as seen from the Earth; imagine a 1x1 mm square at a distance of your outstretched hand. Fifty times smaller! In just one tiny picture, the observable universe contains well over 10.000 wildly different galaxies. Entire galaxies, many many times bigger than our own. Each of those galaxies contains millions upon millions of stars, and those stars must have innumerable planets orbiting them by now. And quite probably, on one of those planets, a sentient being has constructed a device that can peer deeper into space than ever before, and the device shows him ten thousands galaxies, like sand on the beach. Somewhere deep in the background, some 13 billion light years away, he sees the reddest, oldest galaxy he has ever seen. Yet it is not our own galaxy, for we are forever out of his reach by laws of nature alone; we are many many billions of light years behind that veil of darkness, beyond the final curtain of time and space itself, where no telescope of his ever could and never will see.
Links:
NASA's HUDF page
Wikipedia's HUDF page
Full story at HubbleSite; also check the heap of pictures and related articles
WikiSky - similar to Google Earth, but for the sky! (obvious)
The Atlas of the Universe - quite literally
Do you like "Star" in sky? - TL thread; many pictures
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United States24751 Posts
I hate to be pessimistic, but how does this image affect history? This is coming from a man of science.
Edit: Still an awesome accomplishment though; also puts things in perspective some more.
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Wow, that picture blows my mind.. thanks for sharing! Very interesting info to me.
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It makes me feel so small
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
On January 28 2008 11:42 micronesia wrote:
I hate to be pessimistic, but how does this image affect history? This is coming from a man of science. Edit: Still an awesome accomplishment though; also puts things in perspective some more.
Maybe because it proves that while we grope in the darkness of our ignorance we can, and have, seen a little light, giving us thus a glimmer of hope, which though may not sound like much for the pragmatic mind, is of dire importance for us and our future; after all what are we without knowledge and hope?
- it's threads like this one, that keep me coming back to the general forum, thanks op.
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Much credit to the OP; I am a huge fan of astronomy and totally agree with the title of this thread.
The Hubble Deep Fields are absolutely stunning, and the OP explained exactly why. We are such an infinitesimal speck in the Universe, constrained by time and space from ever beholding its full glory.
The Universe is so beautiful and awe-inspiring...
[edit] And thanks for the jpg links, it is now wallpapered :D
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haha I totally just opened the 6200 original in FF just to see if I could :D
It worked
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On January 28 2008 14:33 TheOvermind77 wrote:
Much credit to the OP; I am a huge fan of astronomy and totally agree with the title of this thread.
The Hubble Deep Fields are absolutely stunning, and the OP explained exactly why. We are such an infinitesimal speck in the Universe, constrained by time and space from ever beholding its full glory.
The Universe is so beautiful and awe-inspiring...
though...this image might as well be some generic wallpaper. i dont see how it conveys any sense of significance when the scope of this isn't tangible...maybe when something comes out of this picture in a few hundred years, then maybe. if "significance" is how infinitesimal the earth is, just glancing through a telescope seems much cooler?
interesting thread title though.
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On January 28 2008 14:45 mjh wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2008 14:33 TheOvermind77 wrote:
Much credit to the OP; I am a huge fan of astronomy and totally agree with the title of this thread.
The Hubble Deep Fields are absolutely stunning, and the OP explained exactly why. We are such an infinitesimal speck in the Universe, constrained by time and space from ever beholding its full glory.
The Universe is so beautiful and awe-inspiring... though...this image might as well be some generic wallpaper. i dont see how it conveys any sense of significance when the scope of this isn't tangible...maybe when something comes out of this picture in a few hundred years, then maybe. if "significance" is how infinitesimal the earth is, just glancing through a telescope seems much cooler? interesting thread title though.
The light - the images of galaxies in this image - is from right after the Big Bang in the early stages of the Universe. This image is the farthest back in time the human race has ever seen at a distance that is staggering! The fact that the picture holds a large number of galaxies even at such a distance (and time) shows us that we are so small and should make you pause and wonder if there are others, billions of years from now, who will be peering back into time to gaze at the light left from our single galaxy; the same galaxy that held a solar system with a special planet that harbored life that was intelligent enough to peer back into the depths of the Universe and recognize its beauty and, in consequence, its place.
I think it lets us know who we are, where we came from, what will happen to us.
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United States24751 Posts
On January 28 2008 14:28 Physician wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2008 11:42 micronesia wrote:
I hate to be pessimistic, but how does this image affect history? This is coming from a man of science. Edit: Still an awesome accomplishment though; also puts things in perspective some more. Maybe because it proves that while we grope in the darkness of our ignorance we can, and have, seen a little light, giving us thus a glimmer of hope, which though may not sound like much for the pragmatic mind, is of dire importance for us and our future; after all what are we without knowledge and hope? I think that sounds wonderful, but I don't see how it is going to influence history. I think our differences right now are more semantic than substantive.
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Human science has come a long way in a very short time. 500 years ago, we were the center of the universe built specially for us. Now we are nothing more than an insignificant speck in a universe that is bigger than we could have ever imagined, less than a raindrop in the storm or a speck of sand on the beach. What does that mean for us as men? It seems so easy to yield to nihilism, but I find that sticking to the things that make us human and special give us even greater meaning, in the light of our small physical stature in comparison to nature's grandeur.
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geez, sensationalize much. That is by far not the most important image in history, maybe in your brief pathetic history on planet earth.
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just wanted to throw this out there..
title says The most important image in history
and then you write about how huge the universe is and how insignificant this makes humans.
based on this..
Im gonna bet theres alien life forms millions of times more advanced then us that have "images" that are far far far more important then a pretty picture of space.
assuming you hadn't meant "human history"
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That's just a picture proving that the universe is big. Next you'll show me ones proving that water is wet and fire is hot. Yawn.
This is not a goatse.cx, a lolcat, or even a Starcraft 2 screenshot. Therefore, it's not in the running for most important image.
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Braavos36389 Posts
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On January 28 2008 14:28 Physician wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2008 11:42 micronesia wrote:
I hate to be pessimistic, but how does this image affect history? This is coming from a man of science. Edit: Still an awesome accomplishment though; also puts things in perspective some more. Maybe because it proves that while we grope in the darkness of our ignorance we can, and have, seen a little light, giving us thus a glimmer of hope, which though may not sound like much for the pragmatic mind, is of dire importance for us and our future; after all what are we without knowledge and hope? - it's threads like this one, that keep me coming back to the general forum, thanks op.
In other words, it's a bunch of pretty stars. We spent millions of dollars on the Hubble telescope, to get pretty pictures of stars, which we could have used to feed starving families.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
I was expecting that picture with the vulture standing by a dead african child. The photographer killed himself later too.
That thread had some great/funny debate 
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Braavos36389 Posts
On January 28 2008 16:32 Luddite wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2008 14:28 Physician wrote:On January 28 2008 11:42 micronesia wrote:
I hate to be pessimistic, but how does this image affect history? This is coming from a man of science. Edit: Still an awesome accomplishment though; also puts things in perspective some more. Maybe because it proves that while we grope in the darkness of our ignorance we can, and have, seen a little light, giving us thus a glimmer of hope, which though may not sound like much for the pragmatic mind, is of dire importance for us and our future; after all what are we without knowledge and hope? - it's threads like this one, that keep me coming back to the general forum, thanks op. In other words, it's a bunch of pretty stars. We spent millions of dollars on the Hubble telescope, to get pretty pictures of stars, which we could have used to feed starving families.
This is a pretty narrow view of why technological progression is important. You really don't understand why it's important to explore and develop and create new things? That developing a telescope like Hubble is much more important and serves greater purposes than simply to "get pretty pictures of stars?"
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United States7166 Posts
Magnificent! Man, too bad science hasn't allowed us to see closeup views of faraway planets, the terrain, atmosphere, etc..that would be really really awesome.
This image totally reminds me of the starmap that was in Star Control 2, except everything is much more dense 
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.imageox.com/image/169091-hubbleultr.jpeg)
