WFC3 HUDF09 Project
The Hubble UltraDeep Field 2009 (HUDF09) Project was conceived in 2007. In 2008, through a highly competitive proposal process, the HUDF09 team was awarded 192 orbits (12 days) of observations on the Hubble Space Telescope with the new Wide Field InfraRed Camera (WFC3/IR). The WFC3 was installed during HST Servicing Mission 4 by the Space Shuttle astronauts in May 2009. The camera was tested in the summer of 2009 and the first deep image on the HUDF was taken in August 2009. That 4 day exposure on the HUDF09 is the deepest image ever taken of the universe in the infrared and has enabled astronomers to look back in time and find the earliest galaxies yet - just 600 million years from the Big Bang.
WFC3/IR HUDF09 Team
| PI | Garth D. Illingworth | University of California - Santa Cruz |
| Co-I | Rychard Bouwens | University of California - Santa Cruz |
| Co-I | Marcella Carollo | Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (ETH) |
| Co-I | Marijn Franx | Universiteit Leiden |
| Co-I | Ivo Labbe | Carnegie Institution of Washington |
| Co-I | Daniel K. Magee | University of California - Santa Cruz |
| Co-I | Pascal Oesch | Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (ETH) |
| Co-I | Massimo Stiavelli | Space Telescope Science Institute |
| Co-I | Michele Trenti | University of Colorado at Boulder |
| Co-I | Pieter van Dokkum | Yale University |
Press Releases
- 5 January 2010
- Hubble Reaches the "Undiscovered Country" of Primeval Galaxies
- HubbleSite - NewsCenter
- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has broken the distance limit for galaxies and uncovered a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. read more
- 5 January 2010
- Hubble Reaches the "Undiscovered Country" of Primeval Galaxies
- UC Santa Cruz Press Release
- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has broken the distance limit for galaxies and uncovered a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. read more
- 8 December 2009
- Hubble's Deepest View of Universe Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies
- Hubble Site - NewsCenter
- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light. The faintest and reddest objects in the image are galaxies that formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. No galaxies have been seen before at such early times. The new deep view, taken in late August 2009, also provides insights into how galaxies grew in their formative years early in the universe's history. read more
Images
 A sample of 30 redshift z~8 galaxies we found in the HUDF with the WFC3/IR and the ACS. |
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Examples of the 16 redshift z~7 sources and 5 z~8 galaxies we found in the HUDF with the WFC3/IR and the ACS. These galaxies are seen just 600-800 million years from the Big Bang. |
A sample of redshift z~7 galaxies. |
The detection of two of the highest redshift z~8 galaxies. |
A comparison the old and new Hubble infrared cameras. |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light. |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light. |
Presentations
Science
Click the image to download a pdf Garth Illingworth's STScI "Stellar Populations in the Cosmological Context" meeting science presentation.
Click the image to download a pdf Garth Illingworth's AAS Meeting science presentation.
Click here to download the PowerPoint file Garth Illingworth's AAS Meeting science presentation.
Press
Click the image to download a pdf Garth Illingworth's AAS Meeting press briefing presentation.
Click here to download the PowerPoint file Garth Illingworth's AAS Meeting presentation.
Publications
- 22 December 2009
- Constraints on the First Galaxies: z~10 Galaxy Candidates from HST WFC3/IR
- The first galaxies likely formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. read more
- 9 November 2009
- The evolution of z=7-8 galaxies from IRAC observations of the deep/wide-area WFC3/IR ERS and ultradeep WFC3/IR HUDF
- We investigate the Spitzer/IRAC properties of 36 z~7 z-dropout galaxies and 3 z~8 Y-dropout galaxies derived from deep/wide-area WFC3/IR data of the Early Release Science, the ultradeep HUDF09, and wide-area NICMOS data. read more
- 6 October 2009
- Ultradeep Infrared Array Camera Observations of sub-L* z~7 and z~8 Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: the Contribution of Low-Luminosity Galaxies to the Stellar Mass Density and Reionization
- We study the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) mid-infrared (rest-frame optical) fluxes of 14 newly WFC3/IR-detected z=7 z_{850}-dropout galaxies and 5 z=8 Y_{105}-dropout galaxies. read more
- 1 October 2009
- Very blue UV-continuum slopes of low luminosity z~7 galaxies from WFC3/IR: Evidence for extremely low metallicities
- We use the ultra-deep WFC3/IR data over the HUDF and the Early Release Science WFC3/IR data over the CDF-South GOODS field to quantify the broadband spectral properties of candidate star-forming galaxies at z~7. read more
- 29 September 2009
- Structure and Morphologies of z~7-8 Galaxies from ultra-deep WFC3/IR Imaging of the HUDF
- We present a first morphological study of z~7-8 Lyman Break galaxies (LBGs) from Oesch et al. read more
- 10 September 2009
- Discovery of z~8 Galaxies in the HUDF from ultra-deep WFC3/IR Observations
- We utilize the newly-acquired, ultra-deep WFC3/IR observations over the HUDF to search for star-forming galaxies at z~8-8. read more
- 10 September 2009
- z~7 Galaxies in the HUDF: First Epoch WFC3/IR Results
- We present a sample of 16 robust z~7 z-drop galaxies detected by the newly installed WFC3/IR camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. read more