The image that changed our view of the Universe forever | BBC Global

Why was the deep field done? It had to be attempted. This image really changed the entire field, changed how we approach astronomy and how we do research. And I must confess, 30 years after the image, I still love to look at deep fields. That is what it is all about. Time machines already exist, and they're in the guise of space telescopes. In 1995, one such time machine, called Hubble, stared into a small patch of empty sky for 10 days straight. It was a huge, expensive gamble. What emerged from Hubble's patient gaze was a glittering array of 3,000 galaxies and billions of years of history staring right back at us. This is the story of Hubble Deep Field. At some time, there was a beginning, and it turns out it was 14 billion years ago. So the fact is, the universe is evolving. Before having this image and seeing what we could possibly see, you know, at the edges of the universe, we just didn't know. You know, it was a big question mark. The building blocks of life are in this image. Astronomy is unique in being the only human activity where you can directly look into the past. In astronomy, we see everything as it was when the light left it. And therefore, if you see out far enough, you can see back in time. Hubble Space Telescope was the obvious instrument in which we could try to look back in time. Liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery, our window on the universe. Hubble has become famous for capturing amazing views of our universe, but its early life was a bit of a disaster. Shortly after its launch in 1990, a problem was discovered with the telescope's mirror, which meant it was sending back blurry images, much to the embarrassment of NASA. Three years and $1 billion later, Hubble had been fixed, but it had some serious reputation building to do. So it was clear that some of the first things that we needed to do were to take images that the public could understand. In 1995, Hubble's director, Bob, and his team struck upon a bold but risky idea to point the telescope at nothing. Well, not a well-known star or galaxy. Instead, they planned to use up to 10 days of Hubble's precious observing time on a patch of dark sky. From Earth, that's about the size of a pinhead held at arm's length, just above the Big Dipper and deliberately devoid of other bright objects. They hoped to capture the early formation of our universe, further back in time than ever before. Unsurprisingly, not everyone was convinced. Some well-known researchers predicted that we would probably end up with nothing. It's unlikely the attempt would have been approved through the normal process, but as director, Bob could use 10% of Hubble's time however he wished. The Hubble Deep Field had to be done. Anytime you get a unique facility, you want to push it to the limit. I was willing to accept the consequences if the project had failed. But you're going to try to make discoveries, take the risk to do them. It turns out we were quite fortunate and we got a nice result up there as you see. What we see is billions of years into the past, a galactic core sample of our universe. Interesting you mentioned the level of risk it took in taking an image like this. It hadn't been attempted before and now in our field, it's what we do. These images like this are the basis of so much of our research. This image really changed the entire field, changed how we approach astronomy and how we do research. It was our very first look at the very deep universe, at the very distant universe. And so just being able to see that evidence with our own eyes and see how many galaxies are out there. This is a tiny image we're looking at here. There are so many galaxies and it's just a teeny tiny portion of the sky. So over the entire sky, all around us, there's trillions of galaxies. And I think it just gives us such a sense of perspective of where we are and how we fit in. The Hubble Deep Field is really consists of 340 separate images taken by the telescope. If you expose longer than roughly an hour, the electronic noise builds up and limits the clarity of the image. And therefore the best thing to do to achieve a very deep image is to take electronically a series of them, clean each one individually, and then superpose them electronically to produce the best image. It basically did the job that was intended. The public realized, hey, the universe is, as seen through the excellent eyes of Hubble Space Telescope, really beautiful and it was worthwhile to have that instrument up there. And I was blown away, right? As a high school student with an interest in astronomy, just seeing this image, seeing how many galaxies were in it, and just hearing the description of what it meant, right? It definitely changed my worldview. And I think it's one of the motivating factors of why I ended up in this field, right, and working on deep fields in general even today. I think there's always something about galaxies and probing the edge of the universe and just how we can look back in time. I think that always just fascinated me and got me really... I'm with you. Not only that, Hubble's first deep field boosted our estimate of how many galaxies are out there. It deepened our understanding of how early galaxies form and allowed us to see the most distant objects ever observed. Such vast magnitudes of time, stars, questions, and, of course, answers to long-standing mysteries can seem overwhelming as we grapple with what it means to exist here on Earth. One of the last things that my father said to me was, Bob, your education is going to destroy your faith in God, as he defined a faith in God. And he was right in the sense that I now have a set of beliefs, still believing in the beauty and the profoundness of human life that was different from his. There is a profoundness that teaches one, I think, about life when you look at something like that with an open mind and question what is happening out there.