A mindblowing photograph shows the true size of the universe in staggering detail, and - it’s fair to say - it’s pretty big.
This incredible picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shared by global space agencies, who revealed some truly staggering facts about what it shows.
NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope captured this amazing shot
It might just look like a picture of the night sky, but it contains so much more than that.
Of course, everyone knows that the universe is - stop if this is too technical - absolutely f***ing massive, but this really adds some context.
Featured in this small shot are 10,000 galaxies in great detail, coming in all manner of sizes, shapes, colors, and ages.
The most detailed picture of the universe ever taken. Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI), and the HUDF Team
From stars that are nearing the end of their life cycle to those just starting out, this photograph has the most detailed glance into the nature of our own vast universe that it is possible to get.
It’s a lot to think about, but then again, that’s the universe for you.
On the European Space Agency website, where you can see this picture in full and glorious resolution, they explain the ‘Hubble Ultra Deep Field’ as it appears.
The website states: “This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colours.
“The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old.
“The nearest galaxies - the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals - thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old.”
Another incredible Hubble picture. Credit: VW Pics/Getty
A serious amount of effort went into this photograph
Taking a photograph of this magnitude and scale is difficult, as you can probably imagine.
The first thing you need is a space telescope, and most people don’t have one of those just lying around somewhere.
It was exposed more than 800 times, over the course of 400 spins of the telescope around the earth, meaning that it took a grand total of 11.3 days to create between September 24 2004 and January 16 2004.
We know, that’s longer than 11.3 days, but it needs to be pointing in the right direction, doesn’t it?
Still, ultimately this amazing image gives us a place to put ourselves within the vastness of space, and a place to see the true wonder of what lies outside of our own atmosphere.
It’s enough to make our own world and the problems on it seem pretty small, right?