hurricaneone

I'm not interested in the priciples of how the data was observed, I'm interested in what are the differences in the results or if there are any. Were thy both simply projects to see as far as possible into deep space?

Hubble (HUDF) VLT It seems they are not the same. Hubble uses standard light and the VLT (Very Large Telescope) located in Chile uses a gravitational lens to measure the redshift of star clusters and galaxies to approiximate their distance from us, or their proximity in time to the Big Bang. So I'm still not understanding why these two separate shots of 13 billion+ years ago were made?

Nice link, I'm gonna enjoy watching those, but to anyone else checking them out, it seems only the Quicktime versions are loading - the Realtime links are (for me) choking.

Anyone know what's the difference between the two views of the universe that have been recently released, one from the Very Large Telescope and one from Hubble's Deep Space Field? I know that the VLT uses red shift and Hubble uses ultralong exposure to 'see', but aren't these just two different methods to view essentially the same thing, galaxies that are the furthest away and so closer (not location-wise but time-wise) to the Big Bang? Any clarification would be welcome.

To complete the circle on that, if a 'god' were to make themselves known, would religion not cease to exist, as what is religion other than faith in the unknown?

Yeah, there's a viewpoint I read that said (and I'll paraphrase loosely, if I may) that the otherside of the Big Bang (or even another cosmos) would be invisible to us as it would be on the otherside of our cosmic horizon, where the closer you get to the epicenter (or edge), the galaxies would appear to be moving away from us at ever-increasing speed, so that before we even see the focal point of the Big Bang, they would reach light speed and become invisible from our perspective. As for religion being disproven, there has to be some sort of science that we cannot yet imagine that would relegate this faith business to backroom crackpot status. Yeah, fair enough, if there is a supreme being, I'll go to church on Sunday, but really, do supreme beings give half a damn whether we seek absolution for our sins on a regular basis?

Hi, Interesting thread. There's two things I've always wondered in relation to this topic: 1. What type of discovery, cosmologically speaking, would be of a level to disprove religion as a concept; is there ever likely to be such a discovery, or would 'faith' overrule even the most unequivocal science. and... 2. With the viewing of galaxies within 400 million years of the Big Bang's epicenter, is it likely we're moving into a period of modern time that we will see what came before the Big Bang and would you think that would be likely to affect religion as we know it.