PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Hubble goes to the eXtreme to assemble farthest-ever view of the universe

Hubble goes to the eXtreme to assemble farthest-ever view of the universe
2012-09-26
(Press-News.org) Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe.

Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full moon.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time.

The new full-color XDF image is even more sensitive, and contains about 5,500 galaxies even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.

Magnificent spiral galaxies similar in shape to our Milky Way and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy appear in this image, as do the large, fuzzy red galaxies where the formation of new stars has ceased. These red galaxies are the remnants of dramatic collisions between galaxies and are in their declining years. Peppered across the field are tiny, faint, more distant galaxies that were like the seedlings from which today's magnificent galaxies grew. The history of galaxies -- from soon after the first galaxies were born to the great galaxies of today, like our Milky Way -- is laid out in this one remarkable image.

Hubble pointed at a tiny patch of southern sky in repeat visits (made over the past decade) for a total of 50 days, with a total exposure time of 2 million seconds. More than 2,000 images of the same field were taken with Hubble's two premier cameras: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3, which extends Hubble's vision into near-infrared light.

"The XDF is the deepest image of the sky ever obtained and reveals the faintest and most distant galaxies ever seen. XDF allows us to explore further back in time than ever before", said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz, principal investigator of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2009 (HUDF09) program.

The universe is 13.7 billion years old, and the XDF reveals galaxies that span back 13.2 billion years in time. Most of the galaxies in the XDF are seen when they were young, small, and growing, often violently as they collided and merged together. The early universe was a time of dramatic birth for galaxies containing brilliant blue stars extraordinarily brighter than our sun. The light from those past events is just arriving at Earth now, and so the XDF is a "time tunnel into the distant past." The youngest galaxy found in the XDF existed just 450 million years after the universe's birth in the big bang.

Before Hubble was launched in 1990, astronomers could barely see normal galaxies to 7 billion light-years away, about halfway across the universe. Observations with telescopes on the ground were not able to establish how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe.

Hubble gave astronomers their first view of the actual forms and shapes of galaxies when they were young. This provided compelling, direct visual evidence that the universe is truly changing as it ages. Like watching individual frames of a motion picture, the Hubble deep surveys reveal the emergence of structure in the infant universe and the subsequent dynamic stages of galaxy evolution.

The infrared vision of NASA's planned James Webb Space Telescope will be aimed at the XDF. The Webb telescope will find even fainter galaxies that existed when the universe was just a few hundred million years old. Because of the expansion of the universe, light from the distant past is stretched into longer, infrared wavelengths. The Webb telescope's infrared vision is ideally suited to push the XDF even deeper, into a time when the first stars and galaxies formed and filled the early "dark ages" of the universe with light.



INFORMATION:

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Hubble goes to the eXtreme to assemble farthest-ever view of the universe

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter explores the Moon in 3-D

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter explores the Moon in 3-D
2012-09-26
Scientists using the camera aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are acquiring stereo images of the moon in high resolution (0.5 to 2 meters/pixel) that provide 3-D views of the surface from which high resolution topographic maps are made. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle Camera (LROC NAC) team from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University are currently developing a processing system to automatically generate anaglyphs from most of these stereo pairs. An anaglyph is an image that can be viewed in 3-D using red-blue/green glasses. LROC ...

Compelling evidence that brain parts evolve independently

2012-09-26
An Evolutionary Biologist at The University of Manchester, working with scientists in the United States, has found compelling evidence that parts of the brain can evolve independently from each other. It's hoped the findings will significantly advance our understanding of the brain. The unique 15 year study with researchers at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Medical School also identified several genetic loci that control the size of different brain parts. The aim of the research was to find out if different parts of the brain can respond independently of each ...

Inner city infants have different patterns of viral respiratory illness than infants in the suburbs

2012-09-26
Children living in low-income urban areas appear especially prone to developing asthma, possibly related to infections they acquire early in life. In a new study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, available online, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison investigated viral respiratory illnesses and their possible role in the development of asthma in urban versus suburban babies. The differences in viral illness patterns they found provide insights that could help guide the development of new asthma treatments in children. Viral respiratory illnesses ...

PowerStone Property Management Announces Key New Hires And Promotes 3

2012-09-26
PowerStone Property Management Inc. a full service Orange County, California based property management firm, today announced that it has added several new employees and promoted 3 managers. The announcement was made by CEO Rene Decker. "We're very excited to add such a high caliber of people to our team who are attracted to PowerStone because of our solid reputation and phenomenal growth." He adds, "Every gain we make also allows us to promote from within. I'm especially pleased with the way our company culture is evolving." New hires include Amanda ...

EVM2812 TI DSP Evaluation Board for Motion Control System

2012-09-26
EVM2812 TI DSP Evaluation Board for Motion Control System Toronto, Canada ¨C GAO Tek Inc. (www.GAOTek.com) is offering its EVM2812 TI DSP evaluation board which has a 32-bit fixed-point Flash DSP operating at 150 MHz. This evaluation board is specially optimized for motor driving and control systems. This EVM2812 TI DSP evaluation board, model B0M10002, is based on the MS320F2812 series DSPs. It features on-chip flash program memory, on-chip and extendable SRAM and extendable EEPROM. This module forms a complete digital servo motion control system by interfacing with ...

iFlow Yoga Introduces Immersion Retreats & Teacher Training in Ubud, Bali

2012-09-26
iflow Yoga Immersion Retreats & Teacher Training, a Registered Yoga School, will be held for the first time in Bali, Indonesia, between February 17 - March 19, 2013. Located at the Melatti Cottages in Ubud, Bali, four one-week Modules will be offered for those who are new to yoga as well as seasoned practitioners looking to immerse themselves in a retreat setting for seven days of yoga. Module 1 of the iflow Yoga Immersion Retreats & Teacher Training will take place beginning February 17 - 23, 2013, and is offered to anyone including those new to yoga. Module ...

Miami Community Leadership Training Institute Accepting Applications from Emerging Leaders

2012-09-26
Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) is accepting applications for the Miami Community Leadership Institute (CLI) from residents of Miami-Dade County who are interested in taking a leadership role within their community. The Institute includes seven (7) workshops, training activities, and a neighborhood action project to be cultivated during the series. At the conclusion of the Institute, participants will be better equipped to implement their own ideas for programs and activities to strengthen their neighborhood. There is no cost to participate and the ...

Bomar's New High Density BNC E-Snap Connectors Target Broadcast and Telecom Applications

2012-09-26
Bomar Interconnect Products, Inc., a premier manufacturer and designer of quality connectors and accessories for RF, video and broadcast transmission, announced the addition of high density BNC connectors to their E-Snap Series of edgeboard RF connectors. Bomar's new 75-Ohm high density BNC interconnects are 51% smaller than traditional BNC devices, permitting four times the density, and 40% smaller than the DIN 1.0/2.3. Their small form factor allows engineers to design more connections into less space while maintaining the stringent performance and reliability characteristics ...

Blue Collar Interactive Launches JumpStart campaign to Award $100,000 in Agency Services to a Deserving US Company | Submissions due by Oct. 26, 2012

2012-09-26
Blue Collar (www.bluecollaragency.com), an interactive advertising agency specializing in hard-working ideas, is turning the traditional agency pitch process on its ear with the launch of JumpStart (http://www.bluecollaragency.com/jumpstart), a campaign to award $100,000 in agency services to an emerging company who demonstrates the greatest need for a marketing JumpStart by delivering the best pitch. Blue Collar Interactive, in partnership with SwellPath, a digital marketing and measurement agency, created the JumpStart campaign to give a passionate business with the ...

David Wallace Promoted to General Counsel for San Diego-based Trigild

2012-09-26
David Wallace has been promoted to general counsel of Trigild, a San Diego-based real estate and fiduciary services company, the company's chief operating officer Judy Hoffman announced today. Previously associate counsel for the firm, in his new role, Wallace will provide key legal and strategic expertise to Trigild company management - assisting with corporate matters, developing and negotiating commercial contracts and leases, serving as receiver, prosecuting and defending litigation on the firm's behalf and representing the company in court hearings. "David's ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Mysterious ‘Dark Dwarfs’ may be hiding at the heart of the Milky Way

Real-world data shows teclistamab can benefit many multiple myeloma patients who would have been ineligible for pivotal trial

Scientists reveal how a key inflammatory molecule triggers esophageal muscle contraction

Duration of heat waves accelerating faster than global warming

New mathematical insights into Lagrangian turbulence

Clinical trials reveal promising alternatives to high-toxicity tuberculosis drug

Artificial solar eclipses in space could shed light on Sun

Probing the cosmic Dark Ages from the far side of the Moon

UK hopes to bolster space weather forecasts with Europe's first solar storm monitor

Can one video change a teen's mindset? New study says yes - but there’s a catch

How lakes connect to groundwater critical for resilience to climate change, research finds

Youngest basaltic lunar meteorite fills nearly one billion-year gap in Moon’s volcanic history

Cal Poly Chemistry professor among three U.S. faculty to be honored for contributions to chemistry instruction

Stoichiometric crystal shows promise in quantum memory

Study sheds light on why some prostate tumors are resistant to treatment

Tree pollen reveals 150,000 years of monsoon history—and a warning for Australia’s northern rainfall

Best skin care ingredients revealed in thorough, national review

MicroRNA is awarded an Impact Factor Ranking for 2024

From COVID to cancer, new at-home test spots disease with startling accuracy

Now accepting submissions: Special Collection on Cognitive Aging

Young adult literature is not as young as it used to be

Can ChatGPT actually “see” red? New results of Google-funded study are nuanced

Turning quantum bottlenecks into breakthroughs

Cancer-fighting herpes virus shown to be an effective treatment for some advanced melanoma

Eliminating invasive rats may restore the flow of nutrients across food chain networks in Seychelles

World’s first: Lithuanian scientists’ discovery may transform OLED technology and explosives detection

Rice researchers develop superstrong, eco-friendly materials from bacteria

Itani studying translation potential of secure & efficient software updates in industrial internet of things architectures

Elucidating the source process of the 2021 south sandwich islands tsunami earthquake

Zhu studying use of big data in verification of route choice models

[Press-News.org] Hubble goes to the eXtreme to assemble farthest-ever view of the universe