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  Images: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team In the full Hubble Ultra Deep Field (above), Hubble uncovered 10,000 galaxies, most of which existed before Earth was born. The light from these distant galaxies must travel for a long time before arriving at Earth. It takes billions of years for that light to arrive, so we are seeing the galaxies as they appeared when the light left them billions of years ago, long before the Sun and Earth were born. The area within the white square, above, is shown enlarged, below. The bright orange object with a distinctive cross shape, below, is a star, not a galaxy. The cross shape occurs whenever a star's very bright light passes through the telescope. |
