But we needn't stop there. The resulting DEEP Archival Database will be distributed in the form of an electronic catalog. We expect that, in the tradition of all great astronomical surveys, the DEEP Survey will become a scientific landmark and serve as a major magnet and stimulus for future research. Other explorations have probed lightly back in time, but lacked the technology needed to thoroughly catalog the contents of the distant Universe. For this, spectra of about 10,000 exquisitely faint galaxies will be needed.
Galaxies are complex objects, showing many different faces, forms, and sizes.
Because galaxies and their environments are evolving over the lookback times that DEEP will probe, obtaining a sufficient sample at several epochs will require a large catalog of data. We already have hints that distant galaxies are not the same as those nearby. Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope are strewn with images of very faint galaxies. Many look highly abnormal, showing disrupted structures, disorganized clumps, and possible collisions with neighboring galaxies. This is tantalizing, but the Hubble pictures by themselves are difficult to interpret because we can't tell how far away these objects are.