Latest news with #HubbleUltraDeepField
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
James Webb Space Telescope revisits a classic Hubble image of over 2,500 galaxies
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The James Webb Space Telescope has returned to the scene of one of the Hubble Space Telescope's most iconic images, the Ultra Deep Field, to capture galaxies throughout cosmic history. This new image was taken as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), which is intent on further probing in infrared light two patches of sky that were originally imaged by Hubble: the Hubble Deep Field (1995) and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (2004). The deep fields were Hubble's most intense stares into the universe, revealing the faintest galaxies at the highest redshifts that Hubble could see, galaxies that existed over 13 billion years ago and whose light has been traveling for all that time. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, in particular, was revisited several times by Hubble, in 2009, 2012 and 2014, using the near-infrared channels on the space telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. It shows some 10,000 galaxies detectable in an area of sky just 2.4 arcminutes square, which is less than a tenth of the diameter of the Full Moon in the night sky. However, Hubble can only see so far. At the greatest redshifts, corresponding to galaxies that we see as they existed within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang, visible light is stretched into infrared wavelengths beyond Hubble's capacity to see. So, to beat this limitation, the JWST has stepped up. The giant 6.5-meter space telescope got its first good look at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in October 2022 with its Near-Infrared Camera. It has revisited the Ultra Deep Field several times, as part of the JADES project, and this latest image was captured by the JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Deep Imaging Survey (MIDIS for short). Indeed, the instrument's shortest-wavelength filter (F560W, which detects infrared light from 4.9 to 6.4 microns, centered on 5.6 microns) took the longest exposure of any single filter as part of this image, totaling 41 hours. The image doesn't show the entirety of the Ultra Deep Field, only a section of it containing about 2,500 visible galaxies, four-fifths of them being truly distant, high redshift galaxies. None are record-breakers — the maximum redshifts visible are about 12, equating to 380 million years after the Big Bang, or 13.4 billion years ago. Just to compare, the current highest redshift galaxy, MoM-z14 (which is not part of the Ultra Deep Field), has a redshift of 14.4 and we see it as it existed about 280 million years after the Big Bang. When coupled with data from JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that operates at shorter wavelengths (1.9 to 4.8 microns), the observations reveal a great deal about the many galaxies in the image, most of which are visible as small dots of light. The image is presented in false color, since infrared light has no visible colors since it is beyond what the human eye can see. Hundreds of red galaxies in the image are either star-forming galaxies that are shrouded by interstellar dust that absorbs the starlight and re-radiates it in infrared, or are highly evolved galaxies with lots of older, redder stars that formed near the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, the small greenish-white galaxies are those that are at very high redshift, meaning we see them as they exist mostly during the first billion years of cosmic history. On the other hand, the larger blue and cyan galaxies are closer with low-redshifts and so appear brighter to NIRCam than to MIRI. RELATED STORIES — James Webb Space Telescope eyes Hubble Ultra Deep Field in stunning detail (photo) — JWST peers through a cosmic lens in 'deepest gaze' to date | Space photo of the day for May 27, 2025 — Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes show 2 sides of star cluster duo | Space photo of the day for July 10, 2025 Astronomers work to push ever deeper with the JWST, adding observation on top of observations to chart the development of galaxies from close to the dawn of the universe to the present day. Among the data could be answers to many of cosmology's greatest secrets, such as how supermassive black holes formed, how galaxies formed, and when the majority of stars in the universe came into being. This is all still a work in progress, so stay tuned! A study of the JWST Ultra Deep Field observations as published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Solve the daily Crossword
Economic Times
4 days ago
- Science
- Economic Times
James Webb Space Telescope captures stunning ultra deep field image, revealing the universe's earliest galaxies in infrared
James Webb Space Telescope's Infrared Ultra Deep Field image reveals thousands of distant galaxies, showing the universe's earliest galaxies and cosmic history beyond Hubble's reach. The James Webb Space Telescope went back to the same place where the Hubble Telescope took its famous picture called the Ultra Deep Field. JWST's new picture shows galaxies from different times by looking at two small areas of the sky that Hubble first took pictures of in 1995 and Hubble Deep Fields were Hubble's deepest views into space, showing the faintest, oldest galaxies visible to it—some more than 13 billion years old, meaning their light traveled for that long to reach Earth, as per the report by Space. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was revisited by Hubble multiple times—in 2009, 2012, and 2014—using near-infrared technology to see even farther and more galaxies, capturing about 10,000 galaxies in a very tiny patch of sky. This tiny patch of sky is only 2.4 arcminutes square, which is less than a tenth of the full Moon's diameter as seen from Earth. However, Hubble has limits. It cannot see the farthest galaxies because their visible light is stretched into infrared light, which Hubble's instruments cannot detect well, according to the report by Space. ALSO READ: AI doom countdown begins: Ex-Google exec warns AI will unleash hell, to wipe out white-collar jobs by 2027 To see farther, the JWST, with its larger 6.5-meter mirror, was used because it can see infrared light better than Hubble. JWST first looked at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in October 2022 using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Since then, JWST has looked at this field multiple times through the JADES project, and the latest image was taken by JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) using a survey called MIDIS. MIRI's filter called F560W, which detects infrared light between 4.9 and 6.4 micrometres, took the longest exposure of any filter for this image, totaling 41 hours of observation, as stated by Space report. The new picture shows only a small part of the Ultra Deep Field and has about 2,500 galaxies you can see. About 80% of these galaxies are very far away. None of them are the farthest galaxies we know because they are from about 380 million years after the Big Bang, which is 13.4 billion years farthest galaxy we know is called MoM-z14. It shows us how things looked about 280 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy is not in the new Ultra Deep Field picture. When scientists add data from JWST's Near-Infrared Camera, they get a clearer view of these galaxies, which mostly look like tiny dots of light, according to Space image is shown in false color because infrared light is invisible to the human eye. This coloring helps scientists see different features. Hundreds of the red-colored galaxies in the image are either star-forming galaxies covered in dust that absorbs and re-emits starlight in infrared, or are older galaxies with lots of red stars formed early in the universe. ALSO READ: Verizon customers furious as beloved perk gets axed — check your email before September 1 The small greenish-white galaxies represent very distant, high redshift galaxies, mostly from the universe's first billion years. The larger blue and cyan galaxies are closer to us, have low redshifts, and look brighter in the Near-Infrared Camera images than in the Mid-Infrared. Astronomers keep adding more JWST observations to explore how galaxies developed from near the universe's birth to today, as stated by the Space report. Scientists hope to find answers to big cosmic questions, like how supermassive black holes formed, how galaxies formed, and when most stars were created. This work is ongoing, so more exciting discoveries are expected as JWST keeps observing. The study describing these JWST Ultra Deep Field observations was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Q1. What is the James Webb Space Telescope's Ultra Deep Field image? It is a deep space photo showing thousands of distant galaxies using infrared light, taken by JWST in the same area Hubble first studied. Q2. How is JWST different from the Hubble Telescope? JWST can see farther into space by detecting infrared light, allowing it to view older and more distant galaxies than Hubble.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
James Webb Space Telescope captures stunning ultra deep field image, revealing the universe's earliest galaxies in infrared
The James Webb Space Telescope went back to the same place where the Hubble Telescope took its famous picture called the Ultra Deep Field. JWST's new picture shows galaxies from different times by looking at two small areas of the sky that Hubble first took pictures of in 1995 and 2004. The Hubble Deep Fields were Hubble's deepest views into space, showing the faintest, oldest galaxies visible to it—some more than 13 billion years old, meaning their light traveled for that long to reach Earth, as per the report by Space. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program Hubble's deep field showed very old galaxies The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was revisited by Hubble multiple times—in 2009, 2012, and 2014—using near-infrared technology to see even farther and more galaxies, capturing about 10,000 galaxies in a very tiny patch of sky. This tiny patch of sky is only 2.4 arcminutes square, which is less than a tenth of the full Moon's diameter as seen from Earth. However, Hubble has limits. It cannot see the farthest galaxies because their visible light is stretched into infrared light, which Hubble's instruments cannot detect well, according to the report by Space. ALSO READ: AI doom countdown begins: Ex-Google exec warns AI will unleash hell, to wipe out white-collar jobs by 2027 Live Events James Webb Telescope sees farther with infrared light To see farther, the JWST, with its larger 6.5-meter mirror, was used because it can see infrared light better than Hubble. JWST first looked at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in October 2022 using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Since then, JWST has looked at this field multiple times through the JADES project, and the latest image was taken by JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) using a survey called MIDIS. MIRI's filter called F560W, which detects infrared light between 4.9 and 6.4 micrometres, took the longest exposure of any filter for this image, totaling 41 hours of observation, as stated by Space report. The new picture shows only a small part of the Ultra Deep Field and has about 2,500 galaxies you can see. About 80% of these galaxies are very far away. None of them are the farthest galaxies we know because they are from about 380 million years after the Big Bang, which is 13.4 billion years ago. Farthest Galaxy MoM-z14 and JWST's infrared view The farthest galaxy we know is called MoM-z14. It shows us how things looked about 280 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy is not in the new Ultra Deep Field picture. When scientists add data from JWST's Near-Infrared Camera, they get a clearer view of these galaxies, which mostly look like tiny dots of light, according to Space report. The image is shown in false color because infrared light is invisible to the human eye. This coloring helps scientists see different features. Hundreds of the red-colored galaxies in the image are either star-forming galaxies covered in dust that absorbs and re-emits starlight in infrared, or are older galaxies with lots of red stars formed early in the universe. ALSO READ: Verizon customers furious as beloved perk gets axed — check your email before September 1 The small greenish-white galaxies represent very distant, high redshift galaxies, mostly from the universe's first billion years. The larger blue and cyan galaxies are closer to us, have low redshifts, and look brighter in the Near-Infrared Camera images than in the Mid-Infrared. Astronomers keep adding more JWST observations to explore how galaxies developed from near the universe's birth to today, as stated by the Space report. Scientists hope to find answers to big cosmic questions, like how supermassive black holes formed, how galaxies formed, and when most stars were created. This work is ongoing, so more exciting discoveries are expected as JWST keeps observing. The study describing these JWST Ultra Deep Field observations was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. FAQs Q1. What is the James Webb Space Telescope's Ultra Deep Field image? It is a deep space photo showing thousands of distant galaxies using infrared light, taken by JWST in the same area Hubble first studied. Q2. How is JWST different from the Hubble Telescope? JWST can see farther into space by detecting infrared light, allowing it to view older and more distant galaxies than Hubble.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Check out this interactive map of the early universe, considered largest ever created
A team of astronomers have put together the largest, most detailed map of the universe ever created – and you can explore it now. The interactive online map, created using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, details some 800,000 galaxies across a vast cosmic distance – which in astronomy amounts to peering back in time. In fact, some of the galaxies are so far away, they appear as they existed not long after the Big Bang. Depicting a section of the universe known as the COSMOS-Web field, the new map is far more expansive than even the iconic Hubble Ultra Deep Field, a view of 10,000 galaxies NASA released in 2004. Spanning nearly all of cosmic time, the new map has the potential to challenge existing notions of the infant universe, the astronomers who created it claimed in a press release. The best part? The interactive map is available for the public to use. A team of international scientists who are part of the Cosmic Evolution Survey program (COSMOS) created and released the map of the universe Thursday, June 5. Compiled from more than 10,000 images of COSMOS-Web – the largest observing program of James Webb Space Telescope's first year in orbit – the map covers about three times as much space as the moon takes up when viewed from Earth. That makes it the largest contiguous image available from Webb, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology, whose Jeyhan Kartaltepe is a lead researcher on the project. An intricate astral tapestry, the map gives stargazers digital views of the ancient cosmos in unprecedented detail and breadth. Scrolling and zooming in can take users some 13.5 billion years back in time when the universe was in its infancy and stars, galaxies and black holes were still forming. 'If you had a printout of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field on a standard piece of paper, our image would be slightly larger than a 13-foot by 13-foot-wide mural, at the same depth," Caitlin Casey, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-lead for the COSMOS project, said in a statement. "It's really strikingly large.' Explore the interactive map . Using its powerful resolution and infrared capabilities, the James Webb Space Telescope observed a region of space known as the COSMOS-web field, which scientists have been surveying for years. The raw data from the COSMOS field observations was made publicly available once it was collected by Webb, but that didn't mean it was easily accessible. That's why the COSMOS project spent two years creating the map from Webb's raw data to make it more digestible for amateur astronomers, researchers and even the general public. "In releasing the data to the public, the hope is that other astronomers from all over the world will use it to, among other things, further refine our understanding of how the early universe was populated and how everything evolved to the present day," according to a statement from UC Santa Barbara. The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in 2021, far surpasses the abilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched 35 years ago in 1990. Orbiting the sun rather than Earth, the Webb is outfitted with a gold-coated mirror and powerful infrared instruments to observe the cosmos like no instrument before. Since reaching the cosmos, Webb has not only facilitated countless scientific breakthroughs in astrophysics, but it also has produced gorgeous images of planets and other celestial objects, including star-forming regions. In March, NASA also deployed into orbit its SPHEREx telescope to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies. Scientists say the SPHEREx observatory will be able to get a wider view of the galaxy – identifying objects of scientific interest that telescopes like Hubble and Webb can then study up close. SPHEREx became operational in May, constantly snapping images of the cosmos. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astronomers release largest interactive map of universe: Check it out
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Webb Telescope Drops Detailed, Interactive Map of Its Cosmic Corner
To the humble humans on the ground, the duties of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope can sometimes feel a little…otherworldly. Sure, the observatory drops some life-altering images of the cosmos now and then, but otherwise, the raw data it gathers isn't exactly accessible to the average person—even once it's literally made available to everyone via the internet. But Webb's latest gift helps put some of its work into perspective. Accompanying last week's 1.5TB trove of public Webb data is a new, interactive map of the telescope's slice of the universe, which it's spent hundreds of hours examining with its state-of-the-art scientific instruments. Published by COSMOS-Web, an international, NASA-backed astronomical survey, the map contains almost 800,000 galaxies and an untold number of stars. When you first open the map in your web browser, it doesn't look like much: The product of Webb's painstaking observations is squeezed into a small, tilted square of space. But zoom in, and the universe begins to unfold. It's nearly impossible to choose which shimmering galaxy to home in on first. What the COSMOS-Web interactive map looks like before you start to zoom in. Credit: COSMOS-Web/Adrianna Nine The map extends through roughly 98% of all cosmic time, or 13.5 billion of the universe's 13.8 billion years. That (and its mind-boggling quantity of galaxies) means Webb's map dwarfs Hubble's Ultra Deep Field, which stunned the world with nearly 10,000 imaged galaxies back in 2006. "Our goal was to construct this deep field of space on a physical scale that far exceeded anything that had been done before," said physicist and COSMOS co-lead Caitlin Casey. "If you had a printout of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field on a standard piece of paper, our image would be slightly larger than a 13-foot by 13-foot-wide mural, at the same depth. So it's really strikingly large." Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team Though Webb's map offers astronomers a wealth of information with which to answer age-old questions about the universe, it also poses its own questions. The current cosmological model doesn't accommodate Webb's proof that the universe produced "a billion solar masses of stars" in "only about 400 million years," Casey explained in a statement for the University of California, Santa Barbara. Now it's up to researchers to figure out how so much light spread throughout the cosmos so early—and potentially tweak their understanding of the universe along the way. That's one reason why COSMOS-Web made both the map and Webb's observational data available to the public. "A big part of this project is the democratization of science and making tools and data from the best telescopes accessible to the broader community," Casey said. "Because the best science is really done when everyone thinks about the same data set differently. It's not just for one group of people to figure out the mysteries."
