  Using data derived from the deepest and finest angular resolution images of
the universe yet acquired by astronomers at optical wavelengths using the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in two postage-stamp sections of the sky (Williams
et al. 1996a,b), plus simple geometrical and scaling arguments, we demonstrate
that the faint blue population of point-source objects detected on those two
fields (M\'endez et al. 1996) could actually be ancient halo white dwarfs at
distances closer than about 2 kpc from the Sun. This finding has profound
implications, as the mass density of the detected objects would account for
about half of the missing dark matter in the Milky-Way (Bahcall and Soneira
1980), thus solving one of the most controversial issues of modern astrophysics
(Trimble 1987, Ashman 1992). The existence of these faint blue objects points
to a very large mass locked into ancient halo white dwarfs. Our estimate
indicates that they could account for as much as half of the dark matter in our
Galaxy, confirming the suggestions of the MACHO microlensing experiment (Alcock
et al. 1997). Because of the importance of this discovery, deep follow-up
observations with HST within the next two years would be needed to determine
more accurately the kinematics (tangential motions) for these faint blue old
white dwarfs.
