Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In 1995, one scientist made a decision that his colleagues thought was a catastrophic waste of the world's most expensive telescope! That scientist was the director of the Hubble Space Telescope, Robert Williams, who decided to do something that hadn’t been done before. He took Hubble, the most powerful telescope at the time, and pointed it at a tiny patch of completely dark, apparently empty sky. And he kept it there for over 100 hours across 10 consecutive days.
And there was a lot of pushback at the time over doing that, with people claiming he was wasting telescope time, because distant galaxies wouldn’t be bright enough for Hubble to spot. But what Hubble actually found would change all of astronomy. Ten thousand galaxies. In a patch of sky just 2% of the size of the full Moon. It suggested for the first time that there could be over hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable Universe. But what made this image even more powerful was that Williams did something almost unheard of at the time. He released all the data to the entire scientific community immediately. Usually, in astronomy research, if you apply for time on a telescope, you get to keep your data to yourself and your team alone for 12 months. But what Williams realised was that for an image like this, you could only maximise the scientific return if the whole world went to work on it at once. And so within weeks, research groups everywhere were digging into this data. Including a group who were about to produce one of the most consequential graphs in the history of astronomy, known as the Madau plot. It tells us how many stars formed in the universe and when, with the majority forming over 10 billion years ago, which is good news for us because it means the ingredients for life were made in those stars so that we’re all here to appreciate this. I’ve made a whole video on how they did this over on my youtube channel, if you wanna check it out: youtu.be/K5aeidFfWVY
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
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📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
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👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
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🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
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🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
---
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
In 1995, one scientist made a decision that his colleagues thought was a catastrophic waste of the world's most expensive telescope! That scientist was the director of the Hubble Space Telescope, Robert Williams, who decided to do something that hadn’t been done before. He took Hubble, the most powerful telescope at the time, and pointed it at a tiny patch of completely dark, apparently empty sky. And he kept it there for over 100 hours across 10 consecutive days.
And there was a lot of pushback at the time over doing that, with people claiming he was wasting telescope time, because distant galaxies wouldn’t be bright enough for Hubble to spot. But what Hubble actually found would change all of astronomy. Ten thousand galaxies. In a patch of sky just 2% of the size of the full Moon. It suggested for the first time that there could be over hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable Universe. But what made this image even more powerful was that Williams did something almost unheard of at the time. He released all the data to the entire scientific community immediately. Usually, in astronomy research, if you apply for time on a telescope, you get to keep your data to yourself and your team alone for 12 months. But what Williams realised was that for an image like this, you could only maximise the scientific return if the whole world went to work on it at once. And so within weeks, research groups everywhere were digging into this data. Including a group who were about to produce one of the most consequential graphs in the history of astronomy, known as the Madau plot. It tells us how many stars formed in the universe and when, with the majority forming over 10 billion years ago, which is good news for us because it means the ingredients for life were made in those stars so that we’re all here to appreciate this. I’ve made a whole video on how they did this over on my youtube channel, if you wanna check it out: youtu.be/K5aeidFfWVY
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
---
📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
---
👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
---
🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
---
🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
---
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
