14 mind-bogglingly awesome facts about the Hubble Deep Field images
Perhaps the most incredible picture ever captured – aside from that picture you posted on Instagram of your cat wearing sunglasses, of course – is the Hubble Deep Field image.
Released 24 years ago this month, the original Hubble Deep Field image conveys the staggering, incomprehensible quantity of stars and galaxies out there in the universe.
Perhaps most incredibly, the Hubble Telescope captured the image by focusing on a tiny and seemingly “empty” patch of space with a very long exposure. This yielded an image containing thousands of galaxies and trillions – trillions! – of stars.
Over the decades since the release of the first Deep Field image, follow-up observations and experiments (like the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field and the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field) have unveiled exquisitely detailed images of our early universe.
Just last year, the ABYSS Hubble Ultra-Deep Field reprocessed the Ultra-Deep Field images to provide humanity with the deepest look into the cosmos yet.
Feast your eyes and your mind on these Deep Field facts.
Fascinating videos about the Hubble Deep Field
About PI
Perimeter Institute is the world’s largest research hub devoted to theoretical physics. The independent Institute was founded in 1999 to foster breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the entire cosmos. Research at Perimeter is motivated by the understanding that fundamental science advances human knowledge and catalyzes innovation, and that today’s theoretical physics is tomorrow’s technology. Located in the Region of Waterloo, the not-for-profit Institute is a unique public-private endeavour, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada, that enables cutting-edge research, trains the next generation of scientific pioneers, and shares the power of physics through award-winning educational outreach and public engagement.
