Space Science Update: Stellar ‘Fireworks Finale’ Came First in the Young Universe (Webcast)

Stellar 'Fireworks Finale' Came First in the Young Universe

This is an artist's impression of how the very early universe (less than 1 billion years old) might have looked when it went through a voracious onset of star formation, converting primordial hydrogen into myriad stars at an unprecedented rate. Back then the sky would have...

Star Formation Rate Since the Big Bang

Going, Going, Almost Gone

These three pictures illustrate how a nearby irregular galaxy brimming with star birth would appear at successively greater distances from Earth. The picture at lower left shows the galaxy, I Zw 18, as it actually appears in a snapshot taken by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field...

Galaxy I Zwicky 18

Nearby: As it actually appears at ~30Mly

Simulated Image of I Zw 18 at ~300Mly

Intermediate distance: As it would appear at ~300Mly

Simulated Image of I Zw 18 at ~3Gly

Large distance: As it would appear at ~3Gly

Rapid Star Formation in the Early Universe

This artist's concept of star formation in the early universe shows a field of dazzling proto-galaxies brightening as white-hot knots of stars are born within them. According to recent results from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the earliest stars may have formed in a torrential...

Flying Through the Hubble Deep Field

This animation takes us on a journey through one of the Hubble Space Telescope's most remarkable images. Taken in late 1995, the Hubble Deep Field gave astronomers a glimpse down a narrow corridor from the present universe to the edge of Hubble's sensory range in the early...