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Hubble Goes ‘Deep’ to Sample Young Galaxies

Hubble Goes 'Deep' to Sample Young Galaxies

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reached back to nearly the beginning of time to sample thousands of infant galaxies. This image, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows several thousand galaxies, many of which appear to be interacting or in the process of forming. Some of these galaxies existed when the cosmos was less than about 2 billion years old. The foreground galaxies, however, are much closer to Earth. Two of them [the white, elongated galaxies, left of center] appear to be colliding.

This image represents less than one-tenth of the entire field surveyed by Hubble. The full field, consisting of about 25,000 galaxies, is part of a larger survey called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), the most ambitious study of the early universe yet undertaken with the Hubble telescope. This survey targeted two representative spots in the sky - one in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. This image represents the southern field, located in the constellation Fornax. The entire GOODS survey reveals roughly 50,000 galaxies. Astronomers have identified more than 2,000 of them as infant galaxies, observed when the universe was less than about 2 billion years old.

Because infant galaxies are very faint and very rare, astronomers are using Hubble to search for them over a relatively wide swath of sky. In fact, the new observations cover about 60 times the area of the original Hubble Deep Field Observations, obtained in 1995. Astronomers also are using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to search the GOODS fields for the earliest black holes in the universe. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) will sample these same fields soon after it is launched in August 2003.

By combining light from all three of NASA's great observatories with data from ground-based telescopes, astronomers hope to build a coherent picture of galaxy evolution.

This image of the southern field was assembled from observations taken between July 2002 and February 2003.

The science team consists of M. Giavalisco (STScI), A. Barger (U. Wisconsin, Madison), N. Brandt (PSU), S. Casertano (STScI), C. Cesarsky (ESO), C. Conselice (Caltech), L. Cowie (U. Hawaii) S. Cristiani (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), T. Dahlen (STScI), D. de Mello (JHU), M. Dickinson (STScI), S.M. Fall (STScI), C. Fassnacht (STScI), H.C. Ferguson (STScI), R. Fosbury (ST-ECF), A. Fruchter (STScI), J. Gardner (GSFC), G. Garmire (PSU), N. Grogin (STScI), R. Hook (ST-ECF), R. Idzi (JHU), A. Koekemoer (STScI), C. Kretchmer (JHU), Kyoungsoo Lee (JHU), B. Leibundgut (ESO), M. Livio (STScI), R. Lucas (STScI), P. Madau (UC Santa Cruz), B. Mobasher (STScI), L. Moustakas (STScI), C. Papovich (U. Arizona), S. Ravindranath (STScI), A. Renzini (ESO), M. Richardson (STScI), A. Riess (STScI), Piero Rosati (ESO), H. Spinrad (UC Berkeley), E. Schreier (STScI), D. Stern (JPL/Caltech), M. Stiavelli (STScI), M. Urry (Yale Univ.), and R. Williams (STScI). Also on the team are Y. Park (JHU), A. Hornschemeier (JHU), R. Somerville (STScI), S. Jogee (STScI), D. Alexander (PSU), F. Bauer (PSU), E. Chatzichristou (Yale Univ.), B. Simmons (Yale Univ.), S. Cristiani (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), E. Daddi (ESO), M. Nonino (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), and J. Lotz (UCSC).

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    03h 32m 30s
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -27° 48' 20"
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Fornax

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    These GOODS datasets are from the Hubble proposals: 9425 and 9583. The science team includes M. Giavalisco (STScI), A. Barger (U. Wisconsin, Madison), N. Brandt (PSU), S. Casertano (STScI), C. Cesarsky (ESO), C. Conselice (Caltech), L. Cowie (U. Hawaii) S. Cristiani (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), T. Dahlen (STScI), D.de Mello (JHU), M. Dickinson (STScI), S.M. Fall (STScI), C. Fassnacht (STScI), H.C. Ferguson (STScI), R. Fosbury (ST-ECF), A. Fruchter (STScI), J. Gardner (GSFC), G. Garmire (PSU), N. Grogin (STScI), R. Hook (ST-ECF), R. Idzi (JHU), A. Koekemoer (STScI), C. Kretchmer (JHU), Kyoungsoo Lee (JHU), B. Leibundgut (ESO), M. Livio (STScI), R. Lucas (STScI), P. Madau (UC Santa Cruz), B. Mobasher (STScI), L. Moustakas (STScI), C. Papovich (U. Arizona), S. Ravindranath (STScI), A. Renzini (ESO), M. Richardson (STScI), A. Riess (STScI), Piero Rosati (ESO), H. Spinrad (UC Berkeley), E. Schreier (STScI), D. Stern (JPL/Caltech), M. Stiavelli (STScI), M. Urry (Yale Univ.), and R. Williams (STScI). Also on the team are Y. Park (JHU), A. Hornschemeier (JHU), R. Somerville (STScI), S. Jogee (STScI), D. Alexander (PSU), F. Bauer (PSU), E. Chatzichristou (Yale Univ.), B. Simmons (Yale Univ.), S. Cristiani (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), E. Daddi (ESO), M. Nonino (Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste), and J. Lotz (UCSC).
  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>ACS/WFC
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    July 2002 - February 2003, Exposure Time: 5 days
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F435W (B), F606W (V), F775W (i), and F850LP (z)
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, GOODS, Chandra Deep Field - South, GOODS: CDF-S
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Optical survey
  • Release Date
    June 19, 2003
  • Science Release
    The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team and M. Giavalisco (STScI)

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Hubble Goes 'Deep' to Sample Young Galaxies
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

Blue: F435W (B) Green: F606W (V) Red: F775W (i) + F850LP (z)

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Last Updated
Feb 17, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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