Hubble Deep Space Image

There are many geometries of galaxies including the spiral galaxy characteristic of our own Milky Way. In the remarkable deep space photograph made by the Hubble Space Telescope, every visible object except for the foreground stars is another galaxy. The image is a composite of 342 images taken over a period of 10 days with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on December 18-28, 1995. With an average exposure on the order of 30 minutes, that amounts to about 170 hours of exposure. NASA compares the field of view with that of a dime at 75 feet. The camera was directed almost perpendicular to the galactic plane to get a field of view as clear of foreground stars as possible. The NASA illustration at left shows the location in the constellation Ursa Major.