Our Deep Field World

In 2004, a tiny piece of our sky changed our view of our planet-- and our galaxy-- forever. The guys at Hubble, who had been playing with their camera lenses, decide to try something new. The idea was to point the Hubble space telescope at an empty area of space for ten days to see what they could find. Like a camera, the longer you leave the lens open, the more light the camera will catch.

So the project began - an empty region of space in the vicinity of the constellation Ursa Major was found, a telescoped was pointed in its direction, and then they waited.

Prior to this experiment, the optics on the telescope were incapable of fully appreciating the sky, generaly leaving images somewhat blurry.

To make sure they saw whatever was out there, it was essential that they select as empty an area as possible - one with no infra red, ultra violet, or x-rays, no bright lights, as little as possible. To narrow the field, they selected an area roughly the size of a tennis ball across - equivalent to one part in millions - of our sky - for study. When completed, the image was assembled into HUDF, or Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

What they found was astounding.

An area previously thought to be devoid of anything was found to contain over ten thousand galaxies in an area that seemed completely empty.

I can think of nothing more awesome - in the true sense of the word - than discovering that even in the darkest, blackest reaches of our galaxy there are more galaxies than can be counted - stars and planets so vast and plentiful that the collective conscience of the world could never fully appreciate its awe and grandeur of it.

The project didn't just show galaxies - allowing the camera to sit for eleven days gave scientists the ability to peer thirteen billion years into the past, revealing galaxies that were born shortly after the beginning of the universe - back when time and existence itself was only eight hundred million years old.

Looking at the universe at such a grand scale, one can imagine that, relative to all that is, our planet is far, far less significant than the tiniest grain of sand on the beach, leaving you and I and everyone else on the planet a very, very small spot in the very grand history - one beyond our very comprehension.

There are as many ways to interpret and perceive this data as there are people in the world. The first instinct is the vast loneliness that stretches across empty space, but there is a second option - wonder. There is an entire universe so rich with opportunity no one could possibly take advantage of it all - but we can begin to appreciate it. We can probe the limitless depths of the mind, the science (and mystery) of love and the art of mathematics.

My goal here will be to point you in new directions, open small bits of the world up, and occasionally bring fuzzy, distant images into the clear. There's a lot to know out there - and as every single human being slowly incubates our knowledge, we all learn a single thing before all else - the more we learn, the more we realize there is so staggeringly much more to learn.

After all, the only thing expanding faster than our universe is the human thirst for knowledge.