In 1995, astronomers pointed Hubble at a patch of sky so dark it looked empty and held it there for ten days. The image that came back contained roughly 3,000 galaxies — not stars, but galaxies — many holding billions of stars of their own.

In December 1995, Hubble did something that sounded almost like a misuse of a great telescope. It stared at a patch of sky chosen because it looked empty. The field lay near the handle of the Big Dipper, far from the bright disk of the Milky Way, away from nearby stars, bright galaxies and obvious [...] The post In 1995, astronomers pointed Hubble at a patch of sky so dark it looked empty and held it there for ten days. The image that came back contained roughly 3,000 galaxies — not stars, but g