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

astronomical survey An astronomical survey is a general celestial cartography, map or astrophotography, 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 image ...

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 federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Great Observatories NASA's series of Great Observatories satellites are four large, powerful space telescope, space-based astronomical telescopes launched between 1990 and 2003. They were built with different technology to examine specific wavelength/energy region ...

: the

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

, the

Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003, that was deactivated when operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicate ...

, 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 ...

, 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 cornerst ...

, 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 Hubble Space Telescope, the

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with ...

and the 4-m telescope at

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomy, 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 ...

;

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

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

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

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 corners ...

, 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 The Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) is an image taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite. The location was chosen because, like the Lockman Hole, it is a relatively clear "window" through the ubiquitous clouds of neutral hydrogen gas i ...

(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 Advanced Camera for Surveys) *The

(infrared imaging) *The

(

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

) *

(an X-ray telescope belonging to the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

) *The

Herschel Space Observatory The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telesco ...

(an infrared telescope belonging to the ESA)

Hubble Space Telescope images

GOODs used the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys 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

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 dates ...

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 hole Direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) are high-mass black hole seeds that form from the direct collapse of a large amount of material. They putatively formed within the redshift range ''z''=15–30, when the Universe was about 100–250 million year ...

s, 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's Very Large Telescope. 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 ESO's Very Large Telescope. File:Galaxy JADES-GS-z6 in the GOODS-S field- JADES (NIRCam image) (53057957393).jpg, Galaxy JADES-GS-z6 in the GOODS-S field: JADES (NIRCam image) –

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

File:GOODS-S field (NIRCam image) (JADES2).jpg, GOODS-S field (NIRCam image), James Webb Space Telescope is already providing new insights into this question

References

External links

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