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"data-medium-file =" http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NASA.jpg "data-large-file =" http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/wp -content / uploads / 2011/08 / NASA.jpg "class =" alignleft size-full wp-image-85503″ title=”NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration "src =" http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NASA.jpg "alt =" NASA – National Administration of Aeronautics and Space "width =" 200 "height =" 165 "/>Washington DC. – The universe is a big place. The views of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope sink deep into space and time, but cover a fraction of the angular size of the full moon. The challenge is that these "basic samples" of the sky may not completely represent the universe as a whole.
This dilemma for cosmologists is called cosmic variance. By expanding the area of study, such uncertainties in the structure of the universe can be reduced.
This image shows a cluster of massive galaxies drowned in the middle of a field of nearly 8,000 galaxies scattered in space and time. This snapshot of "Abundant galaxies" is drawn from a new poll by the Hubble Space Telescope to broaden its viewpoint by significantly expanding the area covered by huge clusters of galaxies previously photographed by Hubble. . (NASA, ESA, Koekemoer A. (STScI), Jauzac (Durham University), C. Steinhardt (Niels Bohr Institute) and BUFFALO team)
A new Hubble Observation Campaign, Beyond Ultra-Deep Frontier Fields and Heritage Observations (BUFFALO), will boldly extend the view of the space telescope into regions adjacent to huge clusters of galaxies photographed by telescopes Space Spitzer and Hubble NASA. The fields.
The six massive clusters were used as "natural telescopes" to search for amplified images of galaxies and supernovae so distant and weak that they could not be photographed by Hubble without the glare of a phenomenon called a gravitational lens. .
Large cluster masses, composed mainly of dark matter, amplify and deform light from distant background galaxies that otherwise would not be detected. The BUFFALO program is designed to identify galaxies in their early stages of formation, less than 800 million years after the Big Bang.
In the Frontier Fields program, Spitzer imaged a much larger area of the sky than Hubble but could not measure the distances with the galaxies that he was observing in those areas. With BUFFALO, Hubble now returns to the entire surface of the sky covered by Spitzer to measure distances to thousands of galaxies.
This is important because the six fields observed by Hubble are relatively small and may not fully represent the number of first galaxies in the larger universe. Abell 370 is the first group to be observed.
An important reason for the BUFFALO program is the possibility that there may be far fewer galaxies extremely far apart than predicted in the Frontier Fields survey. This has led astronomers to propose expanding the search area around each Frontier Fields cluster to search for more distant galaxies, and thus to more accurately determine the number of these galaxies.
This means performing a concise inventory of the first galaxies in as wide a range as possible. The goal is to improve the probability of identifying some of the few areas of space with a concentration of early galaxies and much more common regions that have not yet been able to form galaxies so quickly.
Because Frontier Fields' observations have already established what the first galaxies looked like, the wider BUFFALO area will search for these galaxies several times more efficiently than the original Frontier fields. It will also take advantage of observations from other space telescopes, including ultra-deep Spitzer Space Telescope observations that already exist around these groups.
The BUFFALO program is designed to identify galaxies in their early stages of formation, less than 800 million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies should provide a better understanding of the processes by which galaxies were assembled.
One of the main objectives of BUFFALO is to determine how quickly galaxies were formed at this time. This will help astronomers devise strategies for using NASA's next James Webb Space Telescope to probe the far-off universe with its infrared vision.
Astronomers predict that the survey will provide new information about when the most massive and luminous galaxies have formed and how they are related to dark matter, and how the dynamics of clusters influence the galaxies around them. The investigation will also identify images of distant galaxies and supernovae.
The BUFFALO program is jointly led by Charles Steinhardt (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen) and Mathilde Jauzac (University of Durham, United Kingdom), with an international team of nearly 100 astronomers from 13 countries, including simulation experts computer. and in observations of early galactic evolution, gravitational lenses and supernovae.
About 160 hours of Hubble's observation time is planned for the BUFFALO project.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, operates the telescope.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts scientific operations on Hubble. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, DC.
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