Ancient galactic secrets probed in new Hubble survey

PA 50/10 Scientists at The University of Nottingham will be part of one of the biggest explorations of the early universe ever undertaken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr Omar Almaini (Reader & Associate Professor), Dr Chris Conselice (Reader & Associate Professor) and Dr Boris Häußler (Research Fellow) of the School of Physics and Astronomy are part of an international group of researchers taking part in the project, which will provide the first comprehensive view of the structure and assembly of galaxies in the early universe. The project will gather crucial data on the earliest stages in the formation of galaxies and supermassive black holes, in addition to finding distant supernovae. The project has been awarded an unprecedented 902 orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope — the largest amount of time ever allocated to an individual research project. The observing time, totaling about three and a half months, will be spread out over the next two to three years. Using Hubble's powerful new infrared camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the project will examine more than 250,000 distant galaxies. A powerful telescope like Hubble allows astronomers to see back in time as it gathers light that has traveled for billions of years across the universe.