Scientists at the University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the University of Hawaii teamed up to obtain the deepest infrared image of an almost empty field in the sky.

Using Subaru's Adaptive Optics system (AO) and Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS), they observed the "Subaru Deep Field", an area of the sky well suited for studying the origin and evolution of galaxies. They achieved twice the sensitivity of previous observations at the infrared wavelength of 2.12 micrometers. Thanks to AO technology, the spatial resolution of their data is better than Hubble Space Telescope's at this wavelength, clearly revealing the shapes of distant galaxies.