The Hubble Deep Field came from a decision to point the Hubble Space Telescope at a seemingly empty patch of sky for an extended period rather than at a known target. The resulting image revealed about 3,000 previously unseen ancient galaxies in that single patch, demonstrating the universe contains far more structure than visible light alone suggests. The result reshaped high redshift observational cosmology by showing that long, patient exposures of blank-looking sky can capture galaxies too faint and distant to be seen any other way.
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1:45:56idea. How about we point the Hubble telescope at nothing for a week? Okay. Every other astronomer is like, "What are you talking about? I have like 10 different things that I want to point the Hubble telescope at." And he's just like, "No, guys. Let's just point it at nothing and see what happens. Turns out there's a whole lot of stuff in nothing if you stare at it long enough. He found 3,000 ancient galaxies in a single patch of empty sky and it showed that the universe is just like massive. >> Yes. >> Um it transformed high red shift observational cosmology because these are things that are so far away that usually you don't see it. You got to
1:46:36stare at this patch and collect light for an extended period of time in order to capture these galaxies. Huge. >> Sometimes we need to look where it doesn't seem like there's anything to see and you might see everything. 1995 discovery of the top quark. >> Yes, this is finally completing the particle zoo or the quirks. Um,