By combining the best images of galaxies taken in recent years by the Hubble Space Telescope , NASA astronomers have created the deepest image of the universe obtained to date. Specifically, it combines 2,000 different photos taken during two million seconds, and contains 5,500 galaxies, the dimmest emitting ten billionth of the brightness that the human eye is capable of detecting.
The new Hubble Ultra Deep Field (XDF ) image captures a small area of space in the constellation Fornax (the Furnace), with images from 2003 and 2004. It appears from galaxies in Milky Way-like spirals to large red galaxies left over from violent collisions. One thing to keep in mind is that, if the universe is 13.7 billion years old, the XDF incorporates galaxies from 13.2 billion years ago. 'The XDF is the deepest image of the sky ever obtained, revealing the dimmest and most distant galaxies ever seen . It allows us to explore further back in time than ever, ”said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
