Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 June 29
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

A Deep Field In The Southern Sky
Credit: R. Williams (STScI), HDF-S Team, NASA

Explanation: This deep view of the cosmos is the sequel to the 1995 hit Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field. Billed as the Hubble Deep Field South, it was produced by pointing the space telescope toward a patch of sky in the southern constellation Tucana. Over a period of 10 days, many separate exposures were accumulated and combined to reveal progressively fainter galaxies. The original deep field was constructed by observing a piece of sky in the northern constellation Ursa Major. Both stare down 12 billion light-year long tunnels to far-off and still mysterious times when young galaxies inhabited an infant universe. Hubble Deep Field South observations were released to an enthusiastic audience on November 23, 1998.

Tomorrow's picture: asteroid and moon


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.