Looking out in space is looking back in time.

The light from the closest of these galaxies has taken about 6 billion years to reach us - and the furthest more than twice that long. So we are seeing this part of the universe not as it looks now, but as it looked as many as 12 billion years ago. The telescope is a kind of time machine; it lets us see our distant past.

These ancient galaxies are not yet fully formed - and their colors have been distorted by the expansion of the universe. A study of images like these may yield clues to the origin of galaxies and of the universe itself.

Top: The Hubble "Ultra Deep Field" shows a tiny patch of sky – as narrow as a grain of sand held at arm's length – in the constellation Fornax, just below Orion.

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