Photo shows galaxies with stars that are hundreds of millions of years old
 

Hubble shows galaxies from toddler universe
Photo shows galaxies with stars that are hundreds of millions of years old

updated 6:04 p.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 5, 2010
WASHINGTON - The Hubble Space

Telescope has captured the earliest image yet of the universe — just 600 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was just a toddler.

Scientists released the photo Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. It’s the most complete picture of the early universe so far, showing galaxies with stars that are already hundreds of millions of years old, along with the unmistakable primordial signs of the first cluster of stars.

These young galaxies haven’t yet formed their familiar spiral or elliptical shapes and are much smaller and quite blue in color. That’s mostly because at this stage, they don’t contain many heavy metals, said Garth Illingworth, a University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomy professor who was among those releasing the photo.

“We’re seeing very small galaxies that are seeds of the great galaxies today,” Illingworth said in a news conference.

Until NASA’s Hubble telescope was repaired and upgraded last year, the farthest back in time that astronomers could see was about 900 million years after The Big Bang, Illingworth said. Hubble has been key in helping determine the age of the universe at about 13.7 billion years, ending a long scientific debate about a decade ago.

The panorama was built up like a mosaic from pictures taken in September and October 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during last May's servicing mission; and in 2004 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was repaired during the same mission. Readings in ultraviolet, visible-light and near-infrared wavelengths were combined to produce an enhanced-color image.

The view covers a portion of the southern field of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, a deep-sky study by several observatories to trace the formation and evolution of galaxies. The mosaic spans a slice of space that is equal to about a third of the diameter of the full moon, or 10 arcminutes.

The panorama was built up like a mosaic from pictures taken in September and October 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during last May's servicing mission; and in 2004 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was repaired during the same mission. Readings in ultraviolet, visible-light and near-infrared wavelengths were combined to produce an enhanced-color image.

The view covers a portion of the southern field of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, a deep-sky study by several observatories to trace the formation and evolution of galaxies. The mosaic spans a slice of space that is equal to about a third of the diameter of the full moon, or 10 arcminutes.

As far back as Hubble can see, it still doesn’t see the first galaxies. For that, NASA will have to rely on a new observatory, the $4.5 billion James Webb telescope, which is set to launch in about four years.

“We are on the way to the beginning,” said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the American Museum of Natural History. “Every step closer to the beginning tells you something you did not know before.”

The new Hubble picture captures those distant simpler galaxies juxtaposed amid closer, newer and more evolved ones. The result is a cosmic family photo that portrays 7,500 galaxies at different ages and stages of development over the course of more than 13 billion years. The earliest galaxies look irregular and chaotic, but as time goes on, the galaxies take on a more familiar look due to accretion, collisions and mergers.

Tyson, who was not involved in the Hubble image research, said most people only like their own baby pictures, but Hubble’s photo is different: “These are the baby pictures for us all, hence the widespread interest.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34708811...ace/?gt1=43001

Can someone please try to explain to me HOW IN THE HECK they can see into our past by looking into space? It's not like cutting down a tree and counting the rings. We are looking out into space for God's sake. With all the galaxy's in exsistance why in the world have other civilizations not made contact with us? LukeA tell me? You know everything.

This is because of the finite speed of light. When we look at objects that are very large distances away from us, the light that is hitting us now will have started from the object quite a long time ago, so in effect we aren't looking at what the object looks like now but what it looked like some time ago (when the light was emitted).

For example, Alpha Centurus, which is the closest star to us, is about 3 light years away. This means that the light we see from it now left the star about 3 years ago. Something catastrophic could have happened to the star within those three years and we can't know about it yet (it's unlikely by the way!).

Even the light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us here on Earth, so when you look up at the Sun you see it as it was 8 minutes ago! (PS. It's not advisable to look at the Sun too closely as you can damage you eyes).

Many a times we read about how telescopes and probes look back in time. We seem to be able to look back further as we move farther from the earth. For example the recent "probe" which took a "picture" of the universe at age 380,000 years after the big bang.

Now I understand that the light or radiation that we observe started out light years before we observed it and therefore we are acutally seeing back in time when we observe this. But how do these observations go further back in time as we move away from the earth ? This could only be possible if were travelling at faster than light speed and therefore have the ability to move a few light years back from the earth and look at light which left its origin even earlier.

It's not the case that space-based telescopes can see farther away (farther back in time) because they're far away from the Earth. At least, that's not the direct reason.

The reason why we can get impressive pictures of the very distant universe now that we couldn't get 20 years ago is because the technology is better. So we can build better telescopes that are more sensitive. The proximity of a space-based telescope to the Earth is only an issue in the sense that the Earth is a big source of light pollution across a broad region of the spectrum. So a telescope that's far away from the Earth doesn't have to worry about interference from the Earth.

For example, Spitzer (formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)), an infrared telescope that was launched in August 2003, is in an orbit that puts it 15 million kilometers away from the Earth. The idea is to keep it away from the visible and infrared light of the Earth. If it was closer to the Earth, then it wouldn't be as sensitive. So in that sense, you're right that there's a link between how far you are from the Earth and how far away you can see, but it's not quite the kind of link that you describe.

Well that was informative Liam. But you forgot to include the link from the source you got it from.:p

It's common knowledge in astronomy and astrophysics circles.

Things like this absolutely fascinate me.

There are lots of possible reasons:

1) We're the only intelligent life in the universe (which doesn't seem likely)

2) Intelligent life is rare in the universe, and spread out over such large distances
that contact between civilizations is basically impossible (which seems more likely)

3) Intelligent life isn't all that rare in the universe, but none of the civilizations have developed sufficient technology to be able to contact us (seems even more likely)

4) Maybe there are other technologically advanced civilizations out there, and they've scoped us out, concluded that we're crazy as hell, and have determined to stay far, far away from us - like, we're under some kind of cosmic quarantine (might not be likely, but it's certainly understandable)

But wouldn't they have seen Stevie Nicks & come running to Earth just to bask in her genius (as Ghost Tracker might say)?

Earth is the Courtney Love of the Universe.