Hubble contributes to painting a picture of the evolving Universe: The Hubble Deep Field from 1995 allowed astronomers a first glimpse into the early Universe. This first picture was followed later by an even deeper observation, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 2004. Both images were observed in visible light, the same form of light human eyes can see. But astronomers are also interested in the many forms of invisible light out in the Universe. Therefore, the Ultra Deep Field was later observed in the infrared and the ultraviolet as well, allowing scientists to learn even more about the Universe and to look back even further into its history. It is less known that the famous deep field observations were not the only images the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took of the distant Universe. Hubble is also an essential part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) programme, which unites extremely deep observations from several space telescopes: NASA’s Spitzer and Chandra; ESA's Herschel and XMM-Newton; and Hubble. Together these observatories observe two patches of the sky, the GOODS North and the GOODS South fields, with the aim of studying it in as many different wavelengths as possible. The new image here shows part of the GOODS North Field; it includes new Hubble data at ultraviolet wavelengths in addition to the existing data. Because Earth’s atmosphere filters out most ultraviolet light, these observations can only be accomplished from space. The observation programme, called the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Survey, harnessed the ultraviolet vision of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. This study extends and builds on the previous Hubble multi-wavelength data in the CANDELS-Deep (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) fields within the central part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) fields. This mosaic is 14 times the area of the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

Name: GOODS North Field
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Deep Field
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Ursa Major
Release date: 20 August 2018, 06:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

GOODS-South Hubble Deep UV Legacy Field: Following on from last week’s Picture of the Week, this week we showcase the second part of the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Field, the GOODS-South view. With the addition of new ultraviolet light imagery, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured the largest panoramic view of the fire and fury of star birth in the distant Universe, encompassing 12 000 star-forming galaxies. Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens up a new window on the evolving Universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years up to the cosmos’s busiest star-forming period, which happened about three billion years after the Big Bang. So far, ultraviolet light has been the missing piece of the cosmic puzzle. Now, combined with data in infrared, and visible light from Hubble and other space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have assembled the most comprehensive portrait yet of the Universe’s evolutionary history. The image straddles the gap between the very distant galaxies, which can only be viewed in infrared light, and closer galaxies, which can be seen across different wavelengths. The light from distant star-forming regions in remote galaxies started out as ultraviolet, but the expansion of the Universe has shifted the light into infrared wavelengths. By comparing images of star formation in the distant and nearby Universe, astronomers can get a better understanding of how nearby galaxies grew from small clumps of hot, young stars long ago. The observation programme harnessed the ultraviolet vision of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. This study extends and builds on the previous Hubble multi-wavelength data in the CANDELS-Deep (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) fields within the central part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) fields. This mosaic is 14 times the area of the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

Name: GOODS South Field
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Deep Field
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Fornax
Release date: 27 August 2018, 06:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Hazy dust in Ursa Major: This week’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the galaxy NGC 4036: a lenticular galaxy some 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear). This galaxy is known for its irregular lanes of dust, which form a swirling spiral pattern around the centre of the galaxy. This core is surrounded by an extended, hazy aura of gas and dust that stretches further out into space and causes the warm, fuzzy glow that can be seen here. The centre itself is also intriguing; it is something known as a LINER-type (Low-Ionisation Nuclear Emission-line Region) galactic nucleus, meaning that it displays particular emission lines within its spectrum. The particularly bright star visible slightly to the right of the galactic centre is not within the galaxy itself; it sits between us and NGC 4036, adding a burst of brightness to the scene. Due to its relative brightness, this galaxy can be seen using an amateur telescope, making it a favourite amongst backyard astronomers and astrophotography aficionados.

Name: NGC 4036
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 70 million light years
Release date: 3 September 2018, 06:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Awesome gravity: Gravity is so much a part of our daily lives that it is all too easy to forget its awesome power — but on a galactic scale, its power becomes both strikingly clear and visually stunning. This image was taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and shows an object named SDSS J1138+2754. It acts as a gravitational lens illustrates the true strength of gravity: A large mass — a galaxy cluster in this case — is creating such a strong gravitational field that it is bending the very fabric of its surroundings. This causes the billion-year-old light from galaxies sitting behind it to travel along distorted, curved paths, transforming the familiar shapes of spirals and ellipticals (visible in other parts of the image) into long, smudged arcs and scattered dashes. Some distant galaxies even appear multiple times in this image. Since galaxies are wide objects, light from one side of the galaxy passes through the gravitational lens differently than light from the other side. When the galaxies’ light reaches Earth it can appear reflected, as seen with the galaxy on the lower left part of the lens, or distorted, as seen with the galaxy to the upper right. This data were taken as part of a research project on star formation in the distant Universe, building on Hubble’s extensive legacy of deep-field images. Hubble observed 73 gravitationally-lensed galaxies for this project.

Name: SDSS J1138+2754
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Leo
Distance: z=0.451 (redshift)
Release date: 10 September 2018, 06:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt