A Grain of Sand Full of Galaxies

In December 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a controversial decision. As director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, he pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny, seemingly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. The target area was no larger than a grain of sand held at arm's length. Many colleagues called it a waste of precious telescope time.…