Zooming and panning on distant galaxies in the deepest view of the Universe

Zooming and panning in the deepest image of the Universe ever taken in near-infrared light by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The faintest and reddest objects in the image are galaxies that correspond to lookback times of approximately 12.9 billion years to 13.1 billion years. No galaxies have been seen before at such early epochs. These galaxies are much smaller than the Milky Way galaxy and have populations of stars that are intrinsically very blue. This may indicate the galaxies are so primordial that they are deficient in the heavier elements, and as a result, are quite free of the dust that reddens light through scattering.

The results are gleaned from the HUDF09 observations, which are deep enough at near-infrared wavelengths to reveal galaxies at redshifts from 7 to beyond redshift 8. The clear detection of galaxies between redshifts 7 and 8.5 corresponds to lookback times of approximately 12.9 billion years to 13.1 billion years.