NASA's Hubble Space Telescope successfully captured a near-infrared image of the early universe that showed the rarest galaxies in what is considered to be the largest-ever photograph of its kind.
Since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in late December last year, it has been making waves in the astronomy sector, carrying the hopes and dreams of wide-eyed scientists. It comes equipped with an array of high-tech infrared cameras that can pierce stardust and help scientists solve long-standing black hole mysteries.
Hubble Space Telescope
However, the Hubble Space Telescope is still able to capture magnificent images that allow space experts to learn more about our universe. The telescope, which first ventured into the cosmos in 1990, is treading into waters that the James Webb telescope is only starting to explore.
The remarkable and history-changing image could cast a spotlight on some of the rarest objects found in the universe, such as monster galaxies that are the product of massive galaxy mergers or super violent black holes that lurk deep in interstellar space, as per CNET.
In a statement, Lamiya Mowla, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto and lead author of a study on the survey, said that it was difficult to study such extremely rare events using existing images. This is what motivated scientists to create the design of the large survey that enabled them to take the image.
Part of a new high-resolution survey dubbed 3D-Dash, which stands for "drift and shift," Hubble's latest dataset covers an area of the sky that is almost six times the size of the moon as seen from our planet Earth. Mowla and her team were able to compile their findings into a mosaic of multiple shots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that were stitched together.
According to SciTechDaily, the patch in the sky that Hubble captured an image of is known as the COSMOS field, which is a region where plenty of galaxies are found. Despite being launched more than three decades ago, a series of five servicing missions have kept the telescope on the cutting edge of technology.
Near-Infrared Image
The image would allow astronomers to map the star-forming regions of the universe and learn how the earliest, most distant galaxies originated. Mowla said that since Hubble's launch 30 years ago, it has led a reconnaissance of how galaxies have changed in the last 10 billion years of the universe.
The 3D-Dash provides researchers with a complete near-infrared survey of the entire COSMOS field, which is one of the richest data fields for extragalactic studies beyond the Milky Way. As the longest and reddest wavelength observed with Hubble, just beyond what is visible to the human eye, near-infrared means astronomers are better able to see the earliest galaxies that are the farthest from our planet.
Mowla said she was curious about monster galaxies, which are considered to be the most massive ones in the universe that were formed by the mergers of other galaxies. The space expert said astronomers have always wondered how their structures grew and what caused them to change their forms, SciNews reported.
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