Ground- and Space-Based Observations of the Most Distant Parts of the Universe

Abstract

Let’s take a look at some of the “starships” of our time, facilities that have given us the deepest views of the universe ever seen by humankind. The “starships” referred to here are the largest ground-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the other three members of NASA’s “Great Observatories” (Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory), all of which have given us our deepest views of the universe yet. They are called “starships” because of their ability to “take” us to these distant places through extreme imaging, either looking out in wavelengths invisible to the human eye or collecting sparse amounts of photons over (for example) a 30-h period to reveal the most distant galaxies that would otherwise be invisible.