A Resource for Research on the Most Distant Galaxies

latest news
NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time
Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have discovered that one of the most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. The blob-shaped galaxy, called GN-108036, is the brightest galaxy found to date at such great distances.
Hubble Uncovers Tiny Galaxies Bursting with Star Birth in Early Universe
Using its near-infrared vision to peer 9 billion years back in time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered an extraordinary population of tiny, young galaxies that are brimming with star formation. The galaxies are typically a hundred times less massive than the Milky Way galaxy, yet they churn out stars at such a furious pace that their stellar content would double in just 10 million years. By comparison, the Milky Way would take a thousand times longer to double its population.

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	Universiteit Leiden
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	University of California - Santa Cruz
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

For latest images see the Galaxies at Redshift 10

A sample of 30 redshift z~8 galaxies we found in the HUDF with the WFC3/IR and the ACS.
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.