The Hubble telescope showed 265,000 galaxies in one shot. Each can be seen in detail.

Astronomers of the European Space Agency(ESA) have published a new fantastic photo of deep space. In the visible area of ​​the image is smaller than the size of the moon in the night sky, we managed to collect, just think about it, 265,000 different galaxies! As noted in the ESA press release, the photo consists of more than 7,500 images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (a joint project of the US Aerospace Agency NASA and the European Space Agency) in about 16 years of work. If the survey was carried out without interruption, then it would take about 250 days, astronomers say.

"No image will surpass it untilSpace telescopes such as James Webb will be launched, commented Garth Illingworth of the University of California, USA, the leader of the group that produced the image.

The photo was taken during the ongoingProject Hubble Legacy Field. His idea is to use a limited time of service, but at the same time, the incredible resolution of the space telescope to observe a small part of the night sky for many years to create the most detailed picture of very deep space. Researchers believe that in this way they will be able to better understand how our Universe works.

The project began in 1995, when the telescopeReceived the first famous image of Hubble Deep Field (HDF). To create it, the space observatory turned its gaze to a small part of space in the constellation Ursa Major for 10 days and received during this time more than 340 photographs of the area, which were subsequently combined into a single picture, which shows several hundreds of never before seen galaxies.

Approximate version of Deep Field photography

Since then, to the space observatory a fewonce manned expeditions were sent as part of which the telescope was repaired, its cameras were modernized and new equipment was installed, which allowed Hubble’s resolution to be expanded. Astronomers used new capacities not just to improve the quality of the original image of the Deep Field, thanks to them they managed to expand the telescope's field of view and cover the space of space around the original point of view.

This map shows various areas.Hubble’s observations in accordance with its improved capabilities over time. White outlines the field of view of the apparatus, depicting about 265,000 galaxies

“We were able to collect much more distant galaxies in one big data set than ever before,” adds Illingworth.

“The telescope spent more time on observing this small part of space than on any other field of research,” the press release published by ESA says.

The range of wavelengths on the resulting reviewextends from ultraviolet to near-infrared light, revealing all the features of the captured galaxies. At the same time, the brightness of the most dull and distant ones is 10 billion times weaker than the human eye can see.

“Having images at so many frequencies, we canto divide the contribution of active nuclei from old and young stars to galactic light. Such high-resolution data on numerous galaxies allows us to conduct a wide range of extragalactic research, ”said Catherine Whitaker of the University of Connecticut (USA), who heads the team for census of galaxies from the Hubble telescope.

New Hubble features allowed scientistslook even deeper into the history of our universe. Some galaxies in the picture, as noted by astronomers, appeared 13.3 billion years ago. It was just so much their light waves took to reach the Hubble sensors and show how they looked about 500 million years after the Big Bang. Prior to the launch of Hubble in 1990, astronomers could see galaxies at a distance of about seven billion light years, that is, halfway to the Big Bang.

If you want to see a photo of Hubble LegacyField (when printing its full size will be 2.16 meters), where each light point is a galaxy, which can be viewed in detail when approaching, then we recommend to follow this link. Management is simple, you can understand without knowledge of English.

Meanwhile, scientists are going to continue to observebehind this part of the sky with the help of Hubble as long as the telescope remains in working condition. But as soon as a new generation of “James Webb” apparatus is launched into space, our ability to observe deep space and knowledge about it will be able to increase many times over. According to the latest data, Webb will go into space no earlier than March 2021. The Hubble old man, who has been working in orbit for 30 years already, has some time left in reserve. Scientists plan to stop working with him no earlier than the 2030s.

You can discuss the news in our Telegram-chat.