From Hubble's Gaze to Webb's Infrared: A Cosmic Transition
A truly awe-inspiring video is making waves, offering a unique comparison between two of humanity's most powerful eyes on the cosmos: the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. This isn't just any visual; it's a transition through one of the most iconic regions of the sky – the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF).
When the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field was first unveiled by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope back in 2004, it represented a monumental leap, capturing the deepest image of the Universe ever taken at that time. It revealed thousands of galaxies, some dating back to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
Now, in 2025, Webb's new view of this same field pushes the boundaries even further. As one of the deepest infrared views of the Universe obtained to date, Webb's observations are revealing details and structures previously hidden from Hubble's visible light perspective.
This video provides an incredible opportunity to highlight the differences and complementary nature of visible light and infrared observations. By transitioning between these two perspectives of the same celestial expanse, we gain a more profound understanding of the evolution and composition of galaxies across cosmic time.
It's moments like these that remind us of the incredible progress we're making in exploring the universe. The detailed credit for this extraordinary work goes to NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team, ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Östlin, P. G. Perez-Gonzalez, J. Melinder, the JADES Collaboration, the MIDIS collaboration, and M. Zamani (ESA/Webb).
