The canopy of the night sky is both immense and awe-inspiring.
All told, cumulatively, the full sky contains 41,253 square degrees.
If you hold your hand at arm’s length, your pinkie finger’s nail covers about 1 square degree.
Behind every single square degree, there’s a portion of the Universe that unveils its entire story.
Nearby, we first intercept the stars of the Milky Way: an average of ~10 million in each square degree.
Beyond our home galaxy, there are many others extending back across time and space.
Our deepest view of the Universe, the Hubble eXtreme Deep field, covers just 1/32,000,000th of the sky.
It revealed 5500 galaxies, distributed throughout our Universe’s cosmic history.
We can see how galaxies, stars, and the elements inside grow and evolve with time.
It takes 776 such deep fields, stitched together, to fill up just one square degree.
The Universe contains approximately 50 million galaxies in each square degree.
Fainter, redder, and more distant galaxies are certain to be revealed by future observatories.
Earlier views reveal a hotter, more pristine and uniform Universe.
Each successive “pencil beam” helps us understand how our Universe evolved and grew up over cosmic time.
Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in images, visuals, and no more than 200 words. Talk less; smile more.