The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or GOODS, is an

astronomical survey An astronomical survey is a general map or image of a region of the sky (or of the whole sky) that lacks a specific observational target. Alternatively, an astronomical survey may comprise a set of images, spectra, or other observations of ob ...

combining deep observations from three of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

's Great Observatories: the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...

, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the

Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...

, along with data from other space-based telescopes, such as

XMM Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second corner ...

, and some of the world's most powerful ground-based telescopes. GOODS is intended to enable astronomers to study the formation and evolution of galaxies in the distant, early universe. The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey consists of optical and near-infrared imaging taken with the

Advanced Camera for Surveys The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is a third-generation axial instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The initial design and scientific capabilities of ACS were defined by a team based at Johns Hopkins University. ACS was assembl ...

on the

, the

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...

and the 4-m telescope at

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...

;

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. These are added to pre-existing x-ray data from the

and

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

, two fields of 10' by 16'; one centered on the

Hubble Deep Field The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is an image of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major, constructed from a series of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers an area about 2.6 arcminutes on a side, about one 24-millionth of the ...

North (12h 36m 55s, +62° 14m 15s) and the other on the Chandra Deep Field South (3h 32m 30s, -27° 48m 20s). The two GOODS fields are the most data-rich areas of the sky in terms of depth and wavelength coverage.

Instruments

GOODS consists of data from the following space-based observatories: *The

(optical imaging with the

) *The Spitzer Space Telescope (

imaging) *The

Chandra X-Ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...

(

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

) *

(an X-ray telescope belonging to the European Space Agency) *The Herschel Space Observatory (an infrared telescope belonging to the ESA)

Hubble Space Telescope images

GOODs used the

with four filters, centered at 435, 606, 775 and 850 nm. The resulting map covers 30 times the area of the

to a photometric magnitude less sensitivity, and has enough resolution to allow the study of 1 kpc-scale objects at redshifts up to 6. It also provides photometric redshifts for over 60,000 galaxies within the field, providing an excellent sample for studying bright galaxies at high redshifts.

Herschel

In May 2010, scientists announced that the

data from the Herschel Space Observatory was joining the GOODS dataset, after initial analysis of data using Herschel's PACS and SPIRE instruments. In October 2009, Herschel observed the GOODS-North field, and in January 2010 the GOODS-South field. In so doing, Herschel identified sources for the

Cosmic Infrared Background Cosmic infrared background is infrared radiation caused by stellar dust. History Recognizing the cosmological importance of the darkness of the night sky ( Olbers' paradox) and the first speculations on an extragalactic background light date ...

PIA23123-FieldOfGalaxies-Hubble&SpitzerSpaceTelescopes-20190508

Findings

Direct collapse black holes

Two objects studied in the GOODS survey, GOODS-S 29323 and GOODS-S 33160, show evidence of being seeds for direct collapse black holes, a potential mechanism for the formation of black holes in the early universe involving the cloud of gas directly collapsing into a black hole. GOODS-S 29323 has a redshift of 9.73 (13.2 billion light years away from Earth), and GOODS-S 33160 has a redshift of 6.06. This distance portrays interest into the early universe, where matter was in large, dense, quantities. This distance leads to a possible conclusion that due to matter particles exerting gravity on themselves, they would instantly collapse, forming the earliest supermassive black holes that we know of in the center of many galaxies. High infrared radiation in the spectrum of these two objects would imply extremely high star-formation rates, but fits the model of a direct-collapse black hole. Additionally, X-Ray radiation is present in these objects, thought to be originating from the hot accretion disk of a collapsing black hole. GOODS-S 29323 is located in the constellation Fornax, at right ascension 03h 32m 28s and declination –27° 48′ 30″.

Gallery

File:GOODS-South Hubble Deep UV Legacy Field.jpg, Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Field, the GOODS-South view File:Hubble contributes to painting a picture of the evolving Universe GOODS North Field.jpg, GOODS North field taken by Hubble File:GOODS field containing distant dwarf galaxies forming stars at an incredible rate.jpg, GOODS field containing distant dwarf galaxies File:GOODS South Field.jpg, GOODS South Field File:NTTDF-474.jpg, Galaxy NTTDF-474 is one of five that have been used to chart the timeline of the reionisation of the Universe. Image taken by

ESO The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based ast ...

. File:NTTDF-6345.jpg, Galaxy NTTDF-6345 is one of five that have been used to chart the timeline of the reionisation of the Universe. Image taken by

References

External links

* * * {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System Astronomical surveys Extragalactic astronomy Hubble Space Telescope images Great Observatories program