Chandra Deep Field South
The deepest X-ray image ever obtained, made with over 7 million seconds of observing time with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. | |
| Alternative names | CDF-S |
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The Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) is a deep-sky survey field observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite. It contains only stars fainter than magnitude 14 lying in the Fornax constellation. The image is centered on RA 3h 32m28.0s, DEC −27° 48′ 30″, covering 0.11 square degrees and measuring 16 arcminutes across.
The image was created by compositing 11 individual ACIS-I exposures for a cumulative exposure time of over one million seconds between 1999 and 2000, led by Riccardo Giacconi. Further observations taken until 2010 have resulted in a total of exposure of over four million seconds. The CDF-S is the single target where Chandra has observed the longest.
This region was selected for observation because it has much less galactic dust than most other areas of the sky, reducing the risk of obscuration of distant sources.
The field was extended to form the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDF-S). The CDF-S has produced major discoveries in high-energy astronomy and served as a key field for multi-wavelength surveys such as GOODS.
The fields themselves are considered "deep fields" because, similar to the Hubble Deep Field, they are able to see the most distant objects compared to other X-ray images of the Universe. But while the exposure time was similar to Hubble's, the CDF-S and ECDF-S both have a larger field of view.