Hubble Telescope Image Reveals a Cross Section of the Cosmos

A new photo from NASA's Hubble space telescope captures a variety of celestial objects both near and far, providing a glimpse of many different stages of cosmic history all at once.

The Hubble image, released April 17, is a 14-hour exposure that shows objects about 1 billion times fainter than the naked eye can make out, researchers said. Most of the galaxies visible in the photo lie less than 5 billion light-years away, but some objects are much more distant.

For example, the photo shows a quasar located 9 billion light-years from Earth, meaning it has taken about two-thirds of the universe's history for the object's light to reach Hubble. (The Big Bang that created the universe occurred 13.8 billion years ago.) Read more...