/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14647660
Hubble's first deep field was sort of a bet used by some director with his discretionary time (the story is a pretty nice read). "Nobody" really knew it'd turn out the way it did, it wasn't really planned at the time. They highlighted some of the history of the universe and its phases. It's probably not the most time-effective scientific operation to do, but there's some value in them for sure (and reasons I'm not knowledgeable enough to talk about).
>>14647683
The 4.6 figure is SMACS' (the focus of the image), but some objects in it are much further, apparently they may be 300 millions from the beginning of it all.