TIL the Hubble Deep Field photo has galaxies that are 13 billion years old

I was just reading about the Hubble Deep Field image from 1995 and it blew my mind. That tiny patch of sky, about the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length, contains over 3,000 galaxies. And some of those galaxies are over 13 billion light-years away, meaning we're seeing them as they were shortly after the Big Bang. I found this on NASA's website last night while looking up how they processed the colors. It's crazy to think that one photo changed our view of the universe so much. Has anyone else looked into the newer Webb Deep Field and compared them?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jennifer5d ago

Did Webb find galaxies even older than Hubble did?

tara6425d agoTop Commenter

Blew my mind when I first saw the news. It's like when you think you've cleaned out every corner of your closet and then find a whole hidden shelf you never noticed before. Webb basically found galaxies that were already fully formed way earlier than anyone thought possible, way older than what Hubble could see. Makes you wonder what other "hidden shelves" are out there in space that we just haven't figured out how to look at yet.