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Very Large Telescope Captures New 27-Megapixel Deep Field

Posted by Soulskill on from the awesome dept.

xyz writes "European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has captured the deepest ground based U-band image of the universe yet. The image contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument. 'Galaxies were detected that are a billion times fainter than the unaided eye can see and over a range of colours not directly observable by the eye. This deep image has been essential to the discovery of a large number of new galaxies that are so far away that they are seen as they were when the Universe was only 2 billion years old.'"

9 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Shortages? by jrq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hard to believe, looking at this, that there could ever be a shortage of anything.

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    My UID is prime!
    1. Re:Shortages? by 4D6963 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem being, how do we get it where we need it, in time.

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      You just got troll'd!
    2. Re:Shortages? by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hard to believe, looking at this, that there could ever be a shortage of anything.

      It's the same principle as ever, when awestruck in the face of beauty: "you can look, but you cannot touch".

  2. 80 MB TIFF by owlstead · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously, Slashdot, pointing to an article that contains a link to the 80 MB TIFF image at full resolution. Feeling a bit sadistic today, are we? Oh well, I'm rather early so I clicked it nonetheless. Feeling like a bit of a egocentric sadist myself today.

    It works without a hitch in the AlternaTIFF TIFF Image Viewer. You can clearly see the galaxies, but otherwise it is a large sheet of colored dots (as expected I suppose).

  3. Fantastic by Skiron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The mind boggles. How anybody can believe we are here all alone, I don't know.

  4. Re:article image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If you had clicked on the image in the article, you'd have been taken there automatically. Exactly what the hell is it that you were expecting? A full resolution image above the article text?

  5. Time by TheLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shortage of time.

    And here I am wasting it on Slashdot :).

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  6. Re:Only 27 megapixels? by Mprx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The optics are the limiting factor here. Increasing pixel count wouldn't add any more detail.

  7. That's what they said on Easter Island... by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And that's what most of the world is saying today.

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    No sig today...