In 1995, astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope toward a seemingly empty region of space to see what was there. What they found was astounding: almost 3,000 objects, too faint to see with the naked eye. In a short animated video from Vimeo user Bliink, we learn just what the astronomers discovered, and why this seemingly empty region of space is so important to understanding the universe.

The video is a gorgeous, minimal affair that outlines the Hubble Deep Image Survey, and puts the scale of that first image into perspective. The point of space that the scientists observed is about the size of the end of a ballpoint pen, or about one 24-millionth of the whole sky. In that tiny speck is a huge number of galaxies and stars, proving that the universe is an incredibly crowded place.

Later surveys after the telescope was upgraded found even more objects. These observations gave scientists a better idea of not only of how crowded the universe it, but it a snapshot of the universe 13 billion years ago, not long after the Big Bang.