ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Aimed at the same spot in the sky for 10 days, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a picture of celestial objects dimmer than any observed before, astronomers unveiling the image said Monday.
Astronomers characterized the composite photograph as the deepest, most detailed view of the universe ever attained by optical astronomy, with some calling the findings the astronomical equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
``In many ways, what we have here is an archaeological dig,'' said Hubble astronomer Andrew Fruchter, ``the deepest archaeological dig ever done.''
The photograph reveals celestial objects 10 times dimmer than any telescope on Earth could detect and 4 billion times fainter than the human eye can see.
Some of those objects are probably being seen as they were just a few billion years after the ``big bang,'' when the universe was only a fraction of its current age, astronomers said.
Robert Williams, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, compared the photo to finding the royal city of an unknown ancient civilization.
The picture reveals a rich assortment of astronomical artifacts that hold great promise in helping researchers understand the universe's history, he said in San Antonio at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
By looking deep into space, astronomers look back in time, observing light that left distant objects billions of years ago. By taking a picture of objects fainter than any telescope has before, the astronomers said, they probably also have seen the oldest objects ever witnessed.
But it's too early to tell, they said.
The picture contains 1,500 to 2,000 heavenly objects, said Henry Ferguson of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Most of those objects are galaxies, the astronomers said. Although the most distant may be nearly as old as the universe itself, the photograph also shows many nearby, and thus younger, galaxies.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB