Nearby Galaxies Illustrate the Power of the Gemini Deep Deep Survey

This Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope image shows a small section of the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies dominated by two giant elliptical galaxies on the left side of the image. The Gemini Deep Deep Survey (GDDS) studied much more distant galaxies than those shown in this image. However, the nearby elliptical galaxies in this image are thought to be older and even more massive, yet similar to some of the larger distant galaxies studied in the GDDS. Note the bright, smaller and bluer spiral galaxies on the right (center and bottom). These nearby spiral galaxies have active star formation occurring that makes them appear brighter and bluer. The limited number of galaxies observed spectroscopically in the redshift desert prior to the GDDS were mostly of this type. The GDDS allowed astronomers to thoroughly survey the more massive, redder yet dimmer galaxies as well. Light from galaxies in the nearby Virgo cluster has traveled for approximately 45 million years, whereas light from the galaxies studied in the GDDS has been traveling between 8-11 billion years to reach us.