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Farthest Objects Ever Seen Pinpointed in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Detailed analyses of mankind's deepest optical view of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), by several expert teams have at last identified what may turn out to be some of the earliest star-forming galaxies. The sensitivity of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), combined with the penetrating power of the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), finally revealed these long-sought faint galaxies. The HUDF shows that close to a billion years after the big bang the early universe was filled with dwarf galaxies, but no fully formed galaxies like our Milky Way. After careful analysis, they have been sorted out as between 54 and 108 dim, red smudges sprinkled across the HUDF image. This image shows the full sample of candidates circled in green. Three enlargements at right show several dwarf objects that are at the limits of Hubble's present instrument capabilities. The HUDF is a small region of sky in the direction of the southern constellation Fornax. The faintest objects are less than one four-billionth the brightness of stars that can be seen with the naked eye. Their light has taken nearly 13 billion years to reach Earth, and so these objects represent some of the earliest star-forming galaxies to form in the universe.
About the Object
- R.A. PositionR.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.03h 32m 39.99s
- Dec. PositionDec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.-27° 48' 0.0"
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Fornax
- DimensionsDimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.The image is 3 arcminutes square.
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData 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.This image was created from HST data from the following proposal: 9978:: HUDF Team (STScI). The science teams are: — A.J. Bunker (Univ.of Exeter U.K./ Inst. of Astrophysics, Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.), E.R. Stanway (Inst. of Astrophysics, Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.), R.S. Ellis (California Inst. of Tech.), and R.G. McMahon (Inst. of Astrophysics, Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.) — M. Stiavelli, S. M. Fall, and N. Panagia (STScI) — H. Yan (Spitzer Science Center, California Inst. of Tech.) and R.A. Windhorst (Arizona State Univ.) — R.J. Bouwens and G.D. Illingworth (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz), R.I. Thompson (Steward Obs./Univ. of Arizona), J.P. Blakeslee (Johns Hopkins Univ.), M.E. Dickinson (National Optical Astronomy Obs.), T.J. Broadhurst (The Hebrew Univ., Israel), D.J. Eisenstein and X. Fan (Steward Obs./Univ. of Arizona), M. Franx (Leiden Observatory, Netherlands), G. Meurer (Johns Hopkins Univ.), and P. van Dokkum (Yale Univ.) — S. Malhotra, J.E. Rhoads, N. Pirzkal and C. Xu (STScI) - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>ACS/WFC
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.September 24, 2003 - January 16, 2004, Exposure Time: 11.3 days
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F435W (B), F606W (V), F775W (i), F850LP (z)
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.HUDF, Hubble Ultra Deep Field
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Optical Survey
- Release DateSeptember 23, 2004
- Science ReleaseHubble Approaches the Final Frontier: The Dawn of Galaxies
- Credit
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), F775W (i) Red: F850LP (z)
Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.
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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
