When was frontier field built

This observation was a precursor to and helped inspire the later Hubble Deep Fields and Frontier Fields and other similar work. Even with the success and revelatory power of that image, it was still viewed as a very risky thing of possibly dubious value to commit many more HST orbits and staff time and effort to try a significantly even deeper field.

The idea that something should initially be tried in a generic, nominally empty deep field eventually came to the fore, but it was still seen as a possibly big gamble that might not live up to its potential for the great amount of time required. A number of people rightly felt that they already had significant work of their own which needed pursuing and finishing and, when asked if they would be willing to take part in this original HDF experiment, declined.

However, there were still some relatively few of us who had been discussing the possibilities of this informally.

We performed many experiments helping to define what kinds of possibilities existed. Our experiments were, fortunately, successful, and the ultimate success of the original Hubble Deep Field ushered in a new sociological phenomenon in the field: [professional astronomical] community-service projects with high-level science products quickly released to the astronomical community, with prohibitions on internal staff use of those data and catalogs for their own scientific use for some pre-determined time.

In this small field, Hubble uncovered a bewildering assortment of thousands of galaxies at various stages of evolution. Credit: R. This underutilization came as the community gravitated more to observations of another southern-hemisphere field, the Chandra Deep Field-South, which by then had deeper X-ray observations.

This was reassuring, although it was not the deepest of the images in the HDF-South. The snapshot includes galaxies of various distances, ages, sizes, shapes, and colors. In vibrant contrast to the rich harvest of classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, a zoo of oddball galaxies also litters the field. Some look like toothpicks or tadpoles; others like links on a bracelet.

Some also appear to be interacting. These galaxies chronicle a period when the universe was still younger and more chaotic. Subsequent observations with ACS and the even newer WFC3 camera have given us even greater depth and wavelength coverage at higher resolution, particularly in the infrared channel of WFC3. This led to the GO program —not an STScI community service program, but done by external observers adding to the HUDF via approval by the international peer-review committees which review proposals and recommend observations to be done—called the Extreme Ultra-Deep Field.

This program combined all existing archival imaging with still more new, deep infrared observations to try to look even farther back in time. The new full-color XDF image reaches much fainter galaxies, and includes very deep exposures in red light, enabling new studies of the earliest galaxies in the universe.

The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see. Hubble pointed at a tiny patch of southern sky in repeat visits for a total of 50 days, with a total exposure time of 2 million seconds.

Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. All of this gives context to the observations which we have just recently finished: the Hubble Frontier Fields. The plan was to come as close as is possible for Hubble to come to the bread-and-butter observations of the much-anticipated, soon-to-be launched James Webb Space Telescope in searching for some of the earliest galaxies in the distant, early universe. The panel recommended that a group of six galaxy clusters and six adjacent parallel fields be targeted.

That was a very important development, because it also addressed in a major way a phenomenon known as cosmic variance.

In this phenomenon, the large-scale structure of the universe affects observations, so that a measurement of any region of sky may differ from a measurement of a different region of sky by a considerable amount. But given what we now know about the larger-scale structure of the universe, when it comes to the matter which we can detect, at least, there are longer filaments and areas where they intersect, and voids in between. Sometimes, the small field of view of a camera may land on a filament of galaxies, and other times in a void between filaments, or partly on a filament and partly off.

Therefore, the more deep fields we observe in various different places around the sky, the more we statistically beat down the perhaps unusual or anomalous statistical effects of any one particular local environment in the area of that particular deep field as we attempt to identify the more general nature of the universe across filaments and voids, etc. A major feature of the Hubble Frontier Fields program is the use of two fields in parallel, on-cluster and off-cluster, for each of the galaxy clusters targeted in the program, giving us both a cluster-centric and a generic parallel field at some much larger distance away from the cluster, for each cluster.

So, in effect, we get 12 fields for the price of six. Given the relatively small angular size of each individual parallel field, this larger number of parallel fields especially helps to minimize the effects of cosmic variance when measurements from all other similar deep fields are combined or considered together. Adjacent observations were taken in tandem, or parallel.

Under the overall leadership of Jennifer Lotz, we conducted a trade study, a common tactic in situations such as this. Various factors about each potential cluster and their advantages and disadvantages as potential targets were examined in greater detail. We tried to keep in mind anything which might bias our selections in various ways.

The number of clusters was gradually winnowed down as we discussed each of them, until we had our final six. After that, we prioritized them, planning to do an initial set, and then the remainder if a mid-course review by the external panel felt that it was warranted to continue and complete the program based on results to that time.

A professional astronomical community program of improving gravitational lensing models was also put in place, with competitive proposals for grant funding to do the work and share the improved resulting models with the community. Also, having seen the power of public outreach in our other efforts, we involved those at STScI who are best at bringing our work to both the wider astronomical community and the public to allow them to help more meaningfully and widely bring our efforts to light.

We also reviewed our prior experiences and policies and precedents from the various earlier deep field programs and debated whether any needed adjustment. The Hubble Space Telescope and the science instruments have performed well, getting us all the data we had hoped and planned to get. They are indeed beautiful and interesting, and they will help the community—all of us—to better prepare for the soon-to-come James Webb Space Telescope observations. The James Webb Space Telescope is a large infrared telescope with a 6.

Scheduled for launch in October of , Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own solar system. This illustration shows the cold side of the James Webb Space Telescope, where the mirrors and instruments are positioned.

Credit: Northrop Grumman. The resulting statistical advantages will give us greater confidence in the answers we find in our ongoing community studies of galaxy origins, and their formation and evolution to the forms we see in galaxies much nearer by us in space and time. It has taken a lot of work from everyone involved in our various teams of people designing and planning, implementing and scheduling the observations, and processing the data, but it has been, as with the earlier programs, a joy to see the impact spread into the community.

For me, it has been one of the great privileges and honors of my many years here at STScI to have been a part of all of our various extragalactic, deep-field, community-service programs since the original Hubble Deep Field, and to have worked with so many exceptional people who have helped to conduct these programs and produce these science products for the use of the world-wide astronomical community and the public in general.

His main interests in astronomy are interacting and merging galaxies and galaxy formation and evolution. Aside from astronomy, among many other things, his passions include music. He plays fiddle, mandolin, and Celtic bouzouki, and some other instruments as well. Here is a link to his web page. To herald this part of the program, the Frontier Fields were highlighted at the January American Astronomical Society AAS meeting in Grapevine, Texas, where over 2, astronomers gathered to discuss the cosmos.

A new exhibit was displayed to help tell the story of the Frontier Fields program to the science community. We share that story with you below.

Credit: Z. Levay STScI. The Frontier Fields is a program developed collaboratively by the astronomical community.

Despite the fact that observations are coming to an end, the wealth of data being added to NASA archives will ensure new discoveries for years to come. Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer are building upon more than two decades of deep-field initiatives with 12 new deep fields six galaxy cluster deep fields and six deep fields adjacent to the galaxy cluster fields.

By using Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra to study these deep fields in different wavelengths of light, astronomers can learn a great deal about the physics of galaxy clusters, galaxy evolution, and other phenomena related to deep-field studies. Observations with Hubble provide detailed information on galaxy structure and can detect some of the faintest, most distant galaxies ever observed via gravitational lensing.

Spitzer observations help astronomers characterize the galaxies in the image, providing details on star formation and mass, for example. High-energy Chandra X-ray images probe the histories of the giant galaxy clusters by locating regions of gas heated by the collisions of smaller galaxy sub-clusters. An example of images taken by Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra of the Frontier Fields galaxy cluster Abell are shown below.

From these calculations, astronomers can develop magnification maps that highlight the regions where Hubble is most likely able to observe the most distant galaxies. This technique has allowed astronomers to detect ever-more distant galaxies in these fields and has helped astronomers better refine their models of mass distributions. In the first few years of the program, over 85 refereed publications and 4 conferences have been devoted to or based, in part, on the Frontier Fields, including a workshop at Yale in and a meeting in Hawaii in Three types of science results are highlighted below.

Infrared observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope enable astronomers to better understand the masses, and other characteristics, of background lensed galaxies and those residing within a massive galaxy cluster. In , a multiply lensed supernova was discovered , providing a key test of the models of gravitational lensing. As predicted by the models, a new lensed version of the supernova appeared in Learn more about the appearance of a new lensed version of Refsdal here.

Due to the expansion of the universe, light from the most distant galaxies are shifted to redder wavelengths, moving beyond the visible spectrum and into infrared light.

Imagine having a Hubble-class telescope that can observe in the infrared and see greater than an order of magnitude more of the sky with each observation. So far, astronomers studying the Frontier Fields have found several of these strange galaxies, and they are currently combing through the mountains of data to find even more. The tentacles, with their knots of newborn stars, trace the path of the colliding, compressed gas. Eventually, these jellyfish galaxies are thought to settle into elliptical galaxies.

Some examples of jellyfish galaxies in the Frontier Fields. The left and right galaxies are from galaxy cluster Abell The middle galaxy resides in galaxy cluster Abell S In it became home of the Red Wings.

Rent a suite at Frontier Field for all your work, family, or personal functions! Suites are available in three different sizes, 8, 12 or 36 seats. Each rental comes with:. Frontier Field is the 7th ballpark to serve as the home of pro baseball in the Flower City.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 16, , but actual construction didn't begin until July due to cuts in the state budget.

There were , bricks used in the ballpark structure. The first event at Frontier Field was a Beach Boys concert on July 12, , when 12, music lovers poured into the brand-new ballpark. The first sporting event at Frontier took place the next night, when 14, soccer fans came to see the Rochester Raging Rhinos defeat the Montreal Impact The first baseball game wouldn't be until the home opener of the season. The Yankees played 38 regular-season home games at Frontier, as well as two post-season contests.

A byfoot video scoreboard was added in left field for the season, and new grass was laid for Frontier Field is feet to straightaway center, feet to left field and just feet to right field, giving it somewhat of an irregularly shaped outfield.

The home dugout is on the first base side and the stadium seats 10, for baseball.