There are more than
half a million galaxies in the central panel of this
image from the
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in
Chile.
This is the
COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the
full moon, first observed by
Hubble.
It has also been observed by
Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright
stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the
Milky Way.
The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show
zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel.
The variety of galaxy shapes and sizes is
astonishing.
Some of them are so far away that their light has traveled for
billions of years before reaching Earth.
Rubin will come back
every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year
Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
It will allow a dynamic view of the COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.