Hubble View of Entire SWEEPS Field

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a dense collection of stars crammed together in the Milky Way galaxy's ancient central hub. The region surveyed represents one entire field of the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) program. The region is 26,000 light-years away.

Studying the stars in this field, astronomers identified for the first time 70 white dwarfs, the fading embers of sun-like stars. These ancient, dead stars hold information on the galaxy's infancy.

Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys made the observations in 2004 and 2011-2013.

About the colours

Blue: F606W (V) Green: (V) + (I) Red: F814W (I)

About the data

Hubble data for this release were obtained from the following HST proposals: 9750 : PI: K. Sahu (STScI), R. Gilliland (Pennsylvania State University), H. Bond (STScI/Pennsylvania State University), T. Brown (University of Colorado), S. Casertano and M. Livio (STScI), D. Minniti (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), N. Panagia (STScI), A. Renzini (Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy), R. Rich (UCLA), and M. Zoccali (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); and proposal; 12586 : PI: K. Sahu (STScI), H. Bond (STScI/Pennsylvania State University), T. Brown, H. Ferguson, J. Anderson, and S. Casertano (STScI), M. Dominik (University of St. Andrews), A. Udalski (Warsaw University), M. Livio (STScI), Y. Perrott (University of Cambridge), M. Albrow (University of Canterbury), P. Yock (University of Auckland), C. Fryer (Los Alamos National Laboratory), S. Mao (Manchester University), and I. Bond (Massey University).

The international team of astronomers in this study includes: A. Calamida, K. Sahu, S. Casertano, and J. Anderson (STScI), S. Cassisi (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Italy), M. Gennaro, M. Cignoni, T. Brown, N. Kains, H. Ferguson, and M. Livio (STScI), H. Bond (STScI/Pennsylvania State University), R. Buonanno (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Italy, and Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy), W. Clarkson (University of Michigan, Dearborn), I. Ferraro (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Italy), A. Pietrinferni (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy), M. Salaris (Astrophysics Research Institute/Liverpool John Moores University), and J. Valenti and J. Sokol (STScI).