The Best Images From The Hubble Space Telescope’s Final Full Decade As Our Iconic Eye On The Sky

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This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas — very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light." data-height=""2826" data-width="2704"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This new Hubble image, captured and released to celebrate the telescope’s 23rd year in orbit, shows <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Rising like a giant seahorse from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33."

This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas — very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>May 2013: Ring Nebula</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-12" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-30.jpg" alt="This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring Nebula. a well-known planetary nebula 2,000 light years distant, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf. The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. The Hubble observations were taken Sept. 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3." data-height="1280" data-width="1280"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> Nebula. a well-known planetary nebula 2,000 light years distant, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf. The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. The Hubble observations were taken Sept. 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><div class="vestpocket" vest-pocket></div><h3>June 2014: Hubble Ultra Deep Field</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-4" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-31.jpg" alt="The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2002 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and its new-in-2009 Wide Field Camera 3. It shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax." data-height="1160" data-width="1200"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2002 to 2012 <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and its new-in-2009 Wide Field Camera 3. It shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>January 2015: the Andromeda galaxy (M31)&nbsp;</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-7" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-32.jpg" alt="The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view – over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk. This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. This is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy." data-height="1275" data-width="3000"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view – over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk. This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. This is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>January 2015: the Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation' redux</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-5" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-33.jpg" alt="The Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation' redux taken this time in near-infrared light, which transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes, which are seen against a background of myriad stars. The near-infrared light can penetrate much of the gas and dust, revealing stars behind the nebula as well as hidden away inside the pillars. " data-height="1125" data-width="1200"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">The Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation' redux taken this time in near-infrared light, which <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes, which are seen against a background of myriad stars. The near-infrared light can penetrate much of the gas and dust, revealing stars behind the nebula as well as hidden away inside the pillars. </span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>April 2015: Celestial fireworks in Gum 29</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-8" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-34.jpg" alt="The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond since its launch on April 24, 1990." data-height="899" data-width="1200"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond since its launch on April 24, 1990.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>May 2015: Globular cluster 47 Tucanae</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-3" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-35.jpg" alt="This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a globular cluster known as NGC 104 – or, more commonly, 47 Tucanae, since it is part of the constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) in the southern sky. After Omega Centauri it is the brightest globular cluster in the night sky, hosting tens of thousands of stars." data-height="1175" data-width="1200"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a globular cluster known as NGC 104 – or, more <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> commonly, 47 Tucanae, since it is part of the constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) in the southern sky. After Omega Centauri it is the brightest globular cluster in the night sky, hosting tens of thousands of stars.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: J. Mack (STScI) and G. Piotto (University of Padova, Italy)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>April 2017: A close galactic pair</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-14" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-36.jpg" alt="This image displays the galaxies NGC 4302 — seen edge-on — and NGC 4298, both located 55 million light-years away. They were observed by Hubble to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. The galaxy NGC 4298 is seen almost face-on, allowing us to see its spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge-on disc of NGC 4302 huge swathes of dust are responsible for the mottled brown patterns, but a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicates a region of extremely vigorous star formation. The image is a mosaic of four separate captures from Hubble, taken between 2 and 22 January 2017, that have been stitched together to give this amazing field of view. " data-height="4000" data-width="3741"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This image displays the galaxies NGC 4302 — seen edge-on — and NGC 4298, both located 55 million <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> light-years away. They were observed by Hubble to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. The galaxy NGC 4298 is seen almost face-on, allowing us to see its spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge-on disc of NGC 4302 huge swathes of dust are responsible for the mottled brown patterns, but a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicates a region of extremely vigorous star formation. The image is a mosaic of four separate captures from Hubble, taken between 2 and 22 January 2017, that have been stitched together to give this amazing field of view. </span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>May 2017: Crab Nebula</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-10" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-37.jpg" alt="The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion seen by Chinese and other astronomers in the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth. At its center is a super-dense neutron star, rotating once every 33 milliseconds, shooting out rotating lighthouse-like beams of radio waves and light — a pulsar (the bright dot at image center). The nebula's intricate shape is caused by a complex interplay of the pulsar, a fast-moving wind of particles coming from the pulsar, and material originally ejected by the supernova explosion and by the star itself before the explosion. This image combines data from five different telescopes: the VLA (radio) in red; Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared) in yellow; Hubble Space Telescope (visible) in green; XMM-Newton (ultraviolet) in blue; and Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-ray) in purple." data-height="2000" data-width="2000"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion seen by Chinese and other astronomers in <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth. At its center is a super-dense neutron star, rotating once every 33 milliseconds, shooting out rotating lighthouse-like beams of radio waves and light — a pulsar (the bright dot at image center). The nebula's intricate shape is caused by a complex interplay of the pulsar, a fast-moving wind of particles coming from the pulsar, and material originally ejected by the supernova explosion and by the star itself before the explosion. This image combines data from five different telescopes: the VLA (radio) in red; Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared) in yellow; Hubble Space Telescope (visible) in green; XMM-Newton (ultraviolet) in blue; and Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-ray) in purple.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, G. Dubner (IAFE, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires) et al.; A. Loll et al.; T. Temim et al.; F. Seward et al.; VLA/NRAO/AUI/NSF; Chandra/CXC; Spitzer/JPL-Caltech; XMM-Newton/ESA; and Hubble/STScI</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>February 2018: Spirals and supernovae</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-13" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-38.jpg" alt="This stunning image from Hubble shows the majestic galaxy NGC 1015, found nestled within the constellation of Cetus (The Whale) 118 million light-years from Earth. In this image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge creating a scene akin to a sparkling Catherine wheel firework.'

NGC 1015 has a bright, fairly large centre and smooth, tightly wound spiral arms and a central “bar” of gas and stars. This shape leads NGC 1015 to be classified as a barred spiral galaxy — just like our home, the Milky Way. Bars are found in around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, and the arms of this galaxy swirl outwards from a pale yellow ring encircling the bar itself. Scientists believe that any hungry black holes lurking at the centre of barred spirals funnel gas and energy from the outer arms into the core via these glowing bars, feeding the black hole, fueling star birth at the centre and building up the galaxy’s central bulge." data-height=""2000" data-width="1731"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This stunning image from Hubble shows the majestic galaxy NGC 1015, found nestled within the <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> constellation of Cetus (The Whale) 118 million light-years from Earth. In this image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge creating a scene akin to a sparkling Catherine wheel firework.'

NGC 1015 has a bright, fairly large centre and smooth, tightly wound spiral arms and a central “bar” of gas and stars. This shape leads NGC 1015 to be classified as a barred spiral galaxy — just like our home, the Milky Way. Bars are found in around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, and the arms of this galaxy swirl outwards from a pale yellow ring encircling the bar itself. Scientists believe that any hungry black holes lurking at the centre of barred spirals funnel gas and energy from the outer arms into the core via these glowing bars, feeding the black hole, fueling star birth at the centre and building up the galaxy’s central bulge.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>April 2019: Lagoon Nebula</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-11" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-39.jpg" alt="This colorful image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, celebrates the Earth-orbiting observatory’s 28th anniversary of viewing the heavens, giving us a window seat to the universe’s extraordinary tapestry of stellar birth and destruction. At the center of the photo, a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. This mayhem is all happening at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula, a vast stellar nursery located 4,000 light-years away and visible in binoculars simply as a smudge of light with a bright core." data-height="2000" data-width="1699"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This colorful image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, celebrates the Earth-orbiting <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> observatory’s 28th anniversary of viewing the heavens, giving us a window seat to the universe’s extraordinary tapestry of stellar birth and destruction. At the center of the photo, a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. This mayhem is all happening at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula, a vast stellar nursery located 4,000 light-years away and visible in binoculars simply as a smudge of light with a bright core.</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and STScI</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>July 2019: Eta Carinae</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-9" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-40.jpg" alt="This Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant, petulant star Eta Carinae is yielding new surprises. Now, using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, astronomers have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red).'
" data-height=""2000" data-width="2000"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant, petulant star Eta Carinae is yielding new surprises. <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> Now, using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, astronomers have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red).'
</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><h3>December 2019: An interstellar comet and a spiral galaxy</h3><figure class="embed-base image-embed embed-1" role="presentation"><div><img src="https://sciencespies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/960x0-41.jpg" alt="This image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 16, 2019 captures comet 2I/Borisov streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. It is only the second interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. Comet 2I/Borisov appears in front of a distant background spiral galaxy (2MASX J10500165-0152029)." data-height="833" data-width="913"></div><figcaption><fbs-accordion class="expandable" current="-1"><p class="color-body light-text">This image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 16, 2019 captures comet 2I/Borisov <span class="plus" data-ga-track="caption expand">... [+]</span><span class="expanded-caption"> streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. It is only the second interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. Comet 2I/Borisov appears in front of a distant background spiral galaxy (2MASX J10500165-0152029).</span></p></fbs-accordion><small>NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)</small></figcaption></figure><div class='viewMoreLink'></div><p><em>Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.</em></p>" readability="30">

The Hubble Space Telescope is photographed at the moment of release from space shuttle Discovery on ... [+] April 25, 1990 as part of STS-31, the Space Shuttle's mission to deploy the observatory.

NASA

Man’s greatest scientific tool? The Hubble Space Telescope has been the science icon of our times. Launched in 1990, for almost 30 years (or at least since a SpaceX shuttle mission fixed its flawed mirror in 1993) it’s been beaming back stupendous images of nebula, globular clusters, distant galaxies and much more from Earth orbit. 

The Hubble Space Telescope—a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency—has arguably been at its best since 2009, when its fifth and final servicing mission by astronauts saw it being fitted with its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Able to probe the Universe in ultraviolet light, that camera alone has been responsible for some of the telescope’s best work, which we present here. 

HST won’t last forever. Due to be surpassed shortly by the Webb Space Telescope, HST is expected to carry on until the mid 2020s until the radiation levels get too much for its sensors. 

So here they are, the Hubble Space Telescope’s best work of its final full decade. 

April 2010: Mystic Mountain

This image captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, ... [+] which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth.

NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubb

April 2011: Arp 273 interacting galaxies

In celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment into space, ... [+] astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble's eye to an especially photogenic group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewels across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

April 2013: Horsehead Nebula in infrared

This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas — very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light." data-height="2826" data-width="2704"/>

This new Hubble image, captured and released to celebrate the telescope’s 23rd year in orbit, shows ... [+] part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Rising like a giant seahorse from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33.

This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas — very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

May 2013: Ring Nebula

This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring ... [+] Nebula. a well-known planetary nebula 2,000 light years distant, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf. The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. The Hubble observations were taken Sept. 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

June 2014: Hubble Ultra Deep Field

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2002 to 2012 ... [+] with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and its new-in-2009 Wide Field Camera 3. It shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax.

NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

January 2015: the Andromeda galaxy (M31) 

The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a ... [+] portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view – over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk. This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. This is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler

January 2015: the Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation' redux

The Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation' redux taken this time in near-infrared light, which ... [+] transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes, which are seen against a background of myriad stars. The near-infrared light can penetrate much of the gas and dust, revealing stars behind the nebula as well as hidden away inside the pillars.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

April 2015: Celestial fireworks in Gum 29

The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the ... [+] 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond since its launch on April 24, 1990.

NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team

May 2015: Globular cluster 47 Tucanae

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a globular cluster known as NGC 104 – or, more ... [+] commonly, 47 Tucanae, since it is part of the constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) in the southern sky. After Omega Centauri it is the brightest globular cluster in the night sky, hosting tens of thousands of stars.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: J. Mack (STScI) and G. Piotto (University of Padova, Italy)

April 2017: A close galactic pair

This image displays the galaxies NGC 4302 — seen edge-on — and NGC 4298, both located 55 million ... [+] light-years away. They were observed by Hubble to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. The galaxy NGC 4298 is seen almost face-on, allowing us to see its spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge-on disc of NGC 4302 huge swathes of dust are responsible for the mottled brown patterns, but a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicates a region of extremely vigorous star formation. The image is a mosaic of four separate captures from Hubble, taken between 2 and 22 January 2017, that have been stitched together to give this amazing field of view.

NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)

May 2017: Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion seen by Chinese and other astronomers in ... [+] the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth. At its center is a super-dense neutron star, rotating once every 33 milliseconds, shooting out rotating lighthouse-like beams of radio waves and light — a pulsar (the bright dot at image center). The nebula's intricate shape is caused by a complex interplay of the pulsar, a fast-moving wind of particles coming from the pulsar, and material originally ejected by the supernova explosion and by the star itself before the explosion. This image combines data from five different telescopes: the VLA (radio) in red; Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared) in yellow; Hubble Space Telescope (visible) in green; XMM-Newton (ultraviolet) in blue; and Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-ray) in purple.

NASA, ESA, G. Dubner (IAFE, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires) et al.; A. Loll et al.; T. Temim et al.; F. Seward et al.; VLA/NRAO/AUI/NSF; Chandra/CXC; Spitzer/JPL-Caltech; XMM-Newton/ESA; and Hubble/STScI

February 2018: Spirals and supernovae

NGC 1015 has a bright, fairly large centre and smooth, tightly wound spiral arms and a central “bar” of gas and stars. This shape leads NGC 1015 to be classified as a barred spiral galaxy — just like our home, the Milky Way. Bars are found in around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, and the arms of this galaxy swirl outwards from a pale yellow ring encircling the bar itself. Scientists believe that any hungry black holes lurking at the centre of barred spirals funnel gas and energy from the outer arms into the core via these glowing bars, feeding the black hole, fueling star birth at the centre and building up the galaxy’s central bulge." data-height="2000" data-width="1731"/>

This stunning image from Hubble shows the majestic galaxy NGC 1015, found nestled within the ... [+] constellation of Cetus (The Whale) 118 million light-years from Earth. In this image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge creating a scene akin to a sparkling Catherine wheel firework.

NGC 1015 has a bright, fairly large centre and smooth, tightly wound spiral arms and a central “bar” of gas and stars. This shape leads NGC 1015 to be classified as a barred spiral galaxy — just like our home, the Milky Way. Bars are found in around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, and the arms of this galaxy swirl outwards from a pale yellow ring encircling the bar itself. Scientists believe that any hungry black holes lurking at the centre of barred spirals funnel gas and energy from the outer arms into the core via these glowing bars, feeding the black hole, fueling star birth at the centre and building up the galaxy’s central bulge.

NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

April 2019: Lagoon Nebula

This colorful image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, celebrates the Earth-orbiting ... [+] observatory’s 28th anniversary of viewing the heavens, giving us a window seat to the universe’s extraordinary tapestry of stellar birth and destruction. At the center of the photo, a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. This mayhem is all happening at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula, a vast stellar nursery located 4,000 light-years away and visible in binoculars simply as a smudge of light with a bright core.

NASA, ESA, and STScI

July 2019: Eta Carinae

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This Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant, petulant star Eta Carinae is yielding new surprises. ... [+] Now, using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, astronomers have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red).

NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute)

December 2019: An interstellar comet and a spiral galaxy

This image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 16, 2019 captures comet 2I/Borisov ... [+] streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. It is only the second interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. Comet 2I/Borisov appears in front of a distant background spiral galaxy (2MASX J10500165-0152029).

NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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