GOODS Chandra Deep Field South (CDF - S) - Image of distant galaxies obtained by...

GOODS Chandra Deep Field South (CDF - S) - Image of distant galaxies obtained by the Hubble space telescope in the constellation of the furnace. Several thousand galaxies, some of which are more than 10 billion light years old, are visible in this image. A few closer galaxies also appear; this image is the complete field observed by Hubble (which contains about 25,000 galaxies) in the framework of the GOODS programme, an extensive program of study of primordial galaxies in a field of the boreal constellation of the Great Bear and in a field of the southern hemisphere, in the constellation of the furnace. This image, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows several thousand galaxies, many of which appear to be interacting or in the process of forming. Some of these galaxies existed when the cosmos was less than about 2 billion years old. The foreground galaxies, however, are much closer to Earth. This image represents the entire field surveyed by Hubble. The full field, consisting of about 25,000 galaxies, is part of a larger survey called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), the most ambitious study of the early universe yet undertaken with the Hubble telescope. This survey targeted two representative spots in the sky - one in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. This image represents the southern field, located in the constellation Fornax. The entire GOODS survey reveals roughly 50,000 galaxies. Astronomers have identified more than 2,000 of them as infant galaxies, observed when the universe was less than about 2 billion years old. This image of the southern field was assembled from observations taken between July 2002 and February 2003. 5 days exposure