The far reaches of the universe
This image is a composite of images taken by the Hubble Telescope between December 18 to 28, 1995.
It looks as if you're looking into a field of stars across our galaxy. NOT!
This is a view of the far reaches of the entire universe well beyond the edge of the Milky Way. Most of the specks of light are not individual stars, but entire galaxies. Don't let the fuzziness of this photo fool you into missing its signficance.
The light from these distant galaxies originates extremely far away, is incredibly faint and very difficult to image.
"We are clearly seeing some of the galaxies as they were more than ten billion years ago, in the process of formation," said Robert Williams, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland."
This image captures the existence of galaxies as they were close to the beginning of time and the universe as we know it. The worlds we see here are long gone.
See more images from HubbleSite
It looks as if you're looking into a field of stars across our galaxy. NOT!
This is a view of the far reaches of the entire universe well beyond the edge of the Milky Way. Most of the specks of light are not individual stars, but entire galaxies. Don't let the fuzziness of this photo fool you into missing its signficance.
The light from these distant galaxies originates extremely far away, is incredibly faint and very difficult to image.
"We are clearly seeing some of the galaxies as they were more than ten billion years ago, in the process of formation," said Robert Williams, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland."
This image captures the existence of galaxies as they were close to the beginning of time and the universe as we know it. The worlds we see here are long gone.
See more images from HubbleSite
Questions for thought
- Why can we only see ancient images from the farthest reaches of the Universe?
- Are you looking at a large patch of space or a very small one?
- Can anyone see the Earth's past?
Related resources
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HubbleSite
"HubbleSite is the home of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the renowned orbiting telescope whose discoveries have forever altered our knowledge of the universe." Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA