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Updated September 26th, 2022 at 19:50 IST

Revisit NASA Hubble's deepest view of the universe before Webb telescope's takeover

NASA says that this Hubble image covers a small patch of sky in the constellation Fornax and features over 5,500 galaxies including one of the oldest.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
NASA
Image: Twitter/@NASAHubble | Image:self
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On July 12 this year, the James Webb Space Telescope released the deepest image of the universe as it peered back the farthest in time using its exceptional infrared capabilities. But before Webb took over, the record of peering deep into the universe belonged to the Hubble space telescope, which released its first Ultra Deep Field image ten years ago on September 25. 

Celebrating the milestone, NASA re-shared the historic image which was considered the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time. 

About the first deepest cosmic picture

NASA says that the image called the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) was produced using Hubble's data from 2003 and 2004. After hundreds of hours of observation, the telescope peered around 13.2 billion years back in time, in the universe which is around 13.7 billion years old. According to the agency, over 2,000 images of the patch of sky in the constellation Fornax were taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 instruments and combined. 

As for the contents of the picture, it consists of 5,500 galaxies one of which formed just 450 million years after the big bang, making it one of the oldest galaxies ever discovered. The image also contains fuzzy red galaxies which are the remnants of dramatic collisions between other galaxies and are at the end stages of their lives since the formation of new stars have ceased. 

NASA says that XDF's release was a turning point in astronomy as, before Hubble's launch in 1990, astronomers were able to observe galaxies for just around seven billion years at the most. 

Webb telescope's deepest view of the universe

Unveiled by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on July 12, Webb's deepest cosmic view contains galaxies as old as 13 billion years. Following the photo release, NASA revealed that the picture above covers just a small patch of the sky, as small as a sand grain held at arm's length. Tap here to read more about the historic image. Now that Webb is operational, it will be used by several groups of scientists who would carry out follow-up studies on objects already observed by Hubble and try to find new hidden mysteries in deep space. 

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Published September 26th, 2022 at 19:50 IST

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