Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy (2002)
Chapter: Hubble Northern Deep Field
Figure 14.
HUBBLE NORTHERN DEEP FIELD
How far can our telescopes see into space? In 1995, R. Williams (NASA) and the Hubble Deep Field Team used the HST to image an area above the famous Big Dipper star pattern--an area that appeared devoid of stars. The astronomers took 300 images of the same area of the sky over a period of 10 days, hoping to see objects four billion times fainter than the limit of human vision. When the photographs were combined, astronomers were astonished to find that they had discovered thousands of previously undetected galaxies, lying billions of light years away! Some of these galaxies are seen in the process of formation. The final image is called the Hubble Northern Deep Field (of Galaxies).
Figure 14 shows the Hubble Northern Deep Field. Galaxies in a variety of shapes are visible and have been raised in tactile form. The field of view in this image is tiny, only about 1/30th the diameter of the full moon. This image shows only 25% of the entire Hubble Northern Deep Field, just a small sample of the many galaxies in the view!
