Today in History - September 3, 2003 - Hubble begins photographing deepest space images. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field snapshot was the deepest “portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind”. The images show what astronomers call the “dark ages”, the time shortly after the Big Bang; Hubble is seeing back in time from when the universe was just 400 million years old.

Edwin Hubble was one of the leading astronomers of the twentieth century. His discovery that not only one, but countless galaxies, exist beyond our own Milky Way galaxy forever changed our understanding of the universe. Prior to his discovery, most astronomers believed that the universe was limited to our galaxy. Hubble also discovered enough galaxies that he was able to create a system for classifying them into ellilptical, sprials and barred spirals. The Hubble Space Telescope was named in his honor.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Hubble, space telescopes, astronomy and aerospace engineering. For curricular resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education community site.