This stunning image was taken while studying the enormous galaxy cluster Abell 2744, also known as Pandora’s Box. As Hubble focused on Abell 2744, its other camera captured this beautiful view of the neighboring sky. Credit: NASA, ESA and the HST Frontier Fields team (STScI) Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
This newly released Hubble image shows thousands of colorful galaxies.
Peering deep into the early Universe, this picturesque parallel field observation from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals thousands of colorful galaxies swimming in the inky blackness of space. A few foreground stars from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, are also visible.
In October 2013 Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) began observing this portion of sky as part of the Frontier Fields program. This spectacular skyscape was captured during the study of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744, otherwise known as Pandora’s Box. While one of Hubble’s cameras concentrated on Abell 2744, the other camera viewed this adjacent patch of sky near to the cluster.
Containing countless galaxies of various ages, shapes, and sizes, this parallel field observation is nearly as deep as the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. In addition to showcasing the stunning beauty of the deep Universe in incredible detail, this parallel field — when compared to other deep fields — will help astronomers understand how similar the Universe looks in different directions
What I’ve always wanted to know is if Hubble were to point anywhere in the sky, would there always be countless galaxies in all directions? Or did astronomers know which particular direction to point Hubble in order to see the vast majority of galaxies which make up the universe. It’d be interesting to know the density of galaxies by direction your looking, or if it is indeed all the same with equal galaxies in all directions from our perspective.