Hubble Deep Field: How a Photo Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Universe

Hubble Deep Field: How a Photo Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Universe — page 3
these questions Hubble’s camera pointed near the handle of the Big Dipper a star pattern in the constellation Ursa Major the Great Bear Using Earth-based telescopes that little piece of space in Ursa Major appeared to be mostly black and empty of cosmic objects It contained a few stars known to be in one of the Milky Way’s outer arms Telescopes had also detected a handful of tiny blurry blobs of light in the target region which might be galaxies But if so there were not many of them Otherwise the area Williams had singled out seemed to be composed mostly of empty space Considering these facts several of Williams fellow astronomers felt that devoting 10 days of Hubble’s time to such a venture might be a serious mistake There was wide agreement that every minute of Hubble’s time was scientifically valuable even precious What if after the 10 days Williams proposed photo showed mostly empty space Further complicating matters was the fact that Hubble already had gained a reputation for not living up to expectations Not long after the telescope’s launch its