Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

See 265,000 galaxies in the epic Hubble Legacy Field mosaic

By
A mosaic of the distant Universe, called the Hubble Legacy Field, that documents 16 years of observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth and D. Magee (University of California, Santa Cruz), K. Whitaker (University of Connecticut), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), P. Oesch (University of Geneva), and the Hubble Legacy Field team.

This stunning image shows an incredible 265,000 galaxies, stretching back in time to the early universe 500 million years after the Big Bang.

The image is a mosaic of different images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of its deep-field surveys, arranged into a giant overview called the Hubble Legacy Field. The first of these surveys was the 1995 Hubble Deep Field survey, followed by the 2004 Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the 2012 Hubble eXtreme Deep Field. In total, 7,500 separate exposures went into creating this first Hubble Legacy Field image.

Recommended Videos

“Now that we have gone wider than in previous surveys, we are harvesting many more distant galaxies in the largest such dataset ever produced,” Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, leader of the team that assembled the image, said in a statement. “No image will surpass this one until future space telescopes like James Webb are launched.”

Zooming in on the Hubble Legacy Field

The wavelengths shown in the image range from ultraviolet to near-infrared, which allows astronomers to visualize the many different features of the galaxy through time. Some of the galaxies shown are incredibly faint because they are so far away, giving off light that is just one ten-billionth of the brightness visible to the human eye.

“One exciting aspect of these new images is the large number of sensitive color channels now available to view distant galaxies, especially in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum,” explained team member Rychard Bouwens of Leiden University in the Netherlands. “With images at so many frequencies, we can dissect the light from galaxies into the contributions from old and young stars, as well as active galactic nuclei.”

The Legacy Field image and other deep-field images show the expansion of the universe, giving astronomers clues to the state of the early universe and the way that it evolved over millions of years. New telescopes like the upcoming James Webb Telescope will allow astronomers to look even deeper into space, learning more about the development of galaxies through time.

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
The best portable power stations
EcoFlow DELTA 2 on table at campsite for quick charging.

Affordable and efficient portable power is a necessity these days, keeping our electronic devices operational while on the go. But there are literally dozens of options to choose from, making it abundantly difficult to decide which mobile charging solution is best for you. We've sorted through countless portable power optionsĀ and came up with six of the best portable power stations to keep your smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets functioning while living off the grid.
The best overall: Jackery Explorer 1000

Jackery has been a mainstay in the portable power market for several years, and today, the company continues to set the standard. With three AC outlets, two USB-A, and two USB-C plugs, you'll have plenty of options for keeping your gadgets charged.

Read more
CES 2023: HD Hyundai’s Avikus is an A.I. for autonomous boat and marine navigation
Demonstration of NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

This content was produced in partnership with HD Hyundai.
Autonomous vehicle navigation technology is certainly nothing new and has been in the works for the better part of a decade at this point. But one of the most common forms we see and hear about is the type used to control steering in road-based vehicles. That's not the only place where technology can make a huge difference. Autonomous driving systems can offer incredible benefits to boats and marine vehicles, too, which is precisely why HD Hyundai has unveiled its Avikus AI technology -- for marine and watercraft vehicles.

More recently, HD Hyundai participated in the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, to demo its NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system for recreational boats. The name mashes together the words "neuron" and "boat" and is quite fitting since the Avikus' A.I. navigation tech is a core component of the solution, it will handle self-recognition, real-time decisions, and controls when on the water. Of course, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes with HD Hyundai's autonomous navigation solution, which we'll dive into below -- HD Hyundai will also be introducing more about the tech at CES 2023.

Read more
This AI cloned my voice using just three minutes of audio
acapela group voice cloning ad

There's a scene in Mission Impossible 3 that you might recall. In it, our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tackles the movie's villain, holds him at gunpoint, and forces him to read a bizarre series of sentences aloud.

"The pleasure of Busby's company is what I most enjoy," he reluctantly reads. "He put a tack on Miss Yancy's chair, and she called him a horrible boy. At the end of the month, he was flinging two kittens across the width of the room ..."

Read more