Updated Hubble reveals most distant galaxies

Infrared light is invisible to the human eye,with wavelengths about twice as long as visible light — beyond the red.

“The expansion of the Universe causes the light from very distant galaxies to appear more red,so a new camera on Hubble that is very sensitive in the infrared means we can identify galaxies at much greater distances than previously possible,” said Stephen Wilkins,a postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics at Oxford University’s Department of Physics.

In a series of papers,to appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,the UK teams present their analysis of the most sensitive images of the Universe yet taken in the infrared.

“The unique infrared sensitivity of Wide Field Camera 3 means that these are the best images yet for providing detailed information about the first galaxies as they formed in the early Universe,” explained Dr Ross McLure from the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh.

The new images from Hubble include the region of sky known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field,which Bunker and colleagues were the first to analyse five years ago using visible light images taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

“These new observations from HST are likely to be the most sensitive images Hubble will ever take ,but the very distant galaxies we have now discovered will be studied in detail by Hubble’s successor,the James Webb Space Telescope,which will be launched in 2014,” said Professor Jim Dunlop of the University of Edinburgh.