Hubble sees Early Building Blocks of Today's Galaxies


View of Distant, Faint Galaxies Reveals Young Galaxy Building Blocks

Embedded in this Hubble Space Telescope image of nearby and distant galaxies are 18 young galaxies or galactic building blocks, each containing dust, gas, and a few billion stars. Each of these objects is 11 billion light-years from Earth and much smaller than today's galaxies.

STScI-PRC96-29a - September 4, 1996
Rogier Windhorst and Sam Pascarelle (Arizona State University) and NASA


Faint Blue Sub-Galactic Clumps may be Galaxies Under Construction

These 18 small blue objects - each 11 billion light-years from Earth - could be the seeds of some of today's galaxies. Each clump contains several billion stars. Astronomers believe that many of these objects have collided and merged with each other over time to grow into the giant and luminous galaxies seen around us today.

STScI-PRC96-29b - September 4, 1996
Rogier Windhorst and Sam Pascarelle(Arizona State University) and NASA


Press Release:

Hubble Sees Early Building Blocks Of Today's Galaxies
STScI-PR96-29 September 4, 1996
Rogier Windhorst and Sam Pascarelle (Arizona State University) and NASA

Science Backgrounders:

An Introduction to Galaxies

Galaxy Building Block and Cold Dark Matter Theories


Key to location of Galactic Building Blocks in Hubble field

Galaxy Formation Sequence




The original of this article is available at Hubble Sees Early Building Blocks of Today's Galaxies STScI WWW server. (HubbleSite - NewsCenter, September 4, 1996)




Related HST Observations

The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.


Links to public HST pictures (at STScI)


Jonathan Eisenhamer -- eisenham@stsci.edu
Office of Public Outreach -- outreach@stsci.edu


Updated: December 10 '96

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