Hubble Space Telescope
@HubbleTelescope
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A former account for the Hubble Space Telescope. For more about Hubble, follow @NASAHubble. For more on Hubble's science operations, follow @SpaceTelescope.
Joined June 2008
We’ve moved! For the latest updates on Hubble, please go to @nasahubble. For more on Hubble's science operations, please visit @spacetelescope.
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How it started (1997): How it’s going (2018):
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Hubble observed a curious linear feature that was first dismissed as an imaging artifact from the telescope’s cameras. But follow-up observations reveal it is a 200,000-light-year-long chain of young blue stars created in the wake of a runaway black hole:
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Happy 241st anniversary to Uranus, discovered by William Herschel on this day in 1781! This Hubble image shows the planet with faint rings and … what are those six white spots surrounding the planet?
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Who’s throwing shade? Three of Jupiter’s largest moons—Io, Ganymede, and Callisto—as they cross the planet’s face. Hubble caught the rare triple eclipse in 2004. With labels: Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona) and L. Barranger.
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#Hubble has spotted the farthest star ever seen! A lucky alignment and natural magnification made it possible for the telescope to see the star’s light, which took 12.9 billion years to reach Earth:
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Hubble has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star⭐️ that existed within the first billion years after the universe's birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to date! (1/7) 🧵
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This time-lapse of Hubble images, spanning 22 years, traces the ongoing aftermath of Supernova 1987A. Hubble shows a shockwave from the stellar explosion hitting a ring of material previously cast off by the dying star. Explore the scene:
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This dramatic video shows a time-lapse of Hubble photos of V838 Mon, which brightened suddenly in 2002. The brilliant flash reflected off surrounding dusty clouds, creating what’s known as a light echo:
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Hubble had quite a year, but perhaps one its best moments was the release of the 31st anniversary image in April of a giant star on the edge of destruction. Watch as this visualization takes us right up to AG Carinae. Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI
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Researchers using the Hubble have caught a planet in the act of what could be likened to a "flash fry"—a violent and intense process called disk instability. (1/7)
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Do you recognize this mystical looking cloud? It’s a spire of cold gas and dust from the famous Eagle Nebula. This soaring tower is 9.5 light-years (57 trillion miles or nearly 92 trillion kilometers) tall 😨:
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How can this star-studded field yield clues to the Milky Way galaxy’s early construction stages? It takes a painstaking eye from Hubble researchers:
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#OnThisDay 26 years ago, Hubble pointed its instruments at a seemingly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper. What Hubble found changed astronomy forever:
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This is NOT a space penguin protecting his egg from the cold vastness of space. But it IS two galaxies interacting, collectively called Arp 142. Learn how their encounter is scrambling these galaxies:
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Earlier today (December 31 at 9:20:31 am ET), Hubble marked one billion seconds—nearly 32 years—since it began its quest of cosmic discovery!. Credit: NASA. #HappyNewYears
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Hubble took this image of the beautiful NGC 1317 in the constellation Fornax. Joining the galaxy in this photo are a photobombing star in our Milky Way (with the spikes) and very distant galaxy shown as a red elongated smudge. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, PHANGS-HST Team.
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The unusual appearance of NGC 2775, located 67 million light-years away the constellation of Cancer, tells astronomers something about star formation within the galaxy:
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Happy birthday, Hubble! For its 32nd anniversary in orbit, Hubble captured a stunning image of five tightly bound galaxies caught up in a leisurely gravitational dance. In about 1 billion years, they will merge to form one giant elliptical galaxy:
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Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 seems to pinwheel before your eyes in this gorgeous Hubble image. If you look closely, you can spot the spiral-within-a-spiral at the galaxy’s center:
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During the summer there’s nothing better than a frosty ice cream cone. Hubble’s got that summer vibe with this image of the Cone Nebula. Its 2.5 light-year extent, if packed with ice cream, would make a giant dessert!
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Deep inside the dusty, messy cores of merging galaxies are pairs of black holes feasting on material and moving closer to coalescence. Near-infrared images by the Hubble and Keck telescopes are giving astronomers their best glimpse yet of this process:
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These two galaxies aren’t in the crossroads they appear to be in this Hubble image. The larger spiral galaxy—NGC 105—is about 215 million light-years away, while the smaller galaxy is much more distant. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
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This galaxy is roughly 57 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. In 2014, the light from a supernova explosion in NGC 3568 reached Earth, a sudden flare of light caused by the explosion by the death of a massive star. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun.
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20 YEARS OF DISCOVERY: The camera that forever changed our view of the universe has hit a new milestone. Happy 20th birthday to Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)! It has produced more than 125,000 images of space, like these:
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This supernova remnant imaged by the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes is beautiful, but it also represents a cosmic detective story. Through careful study, astronomers deduced it came from a white dwarf collision:
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1, 2, 3, 4 … where is the 5th galaxy? Stephan’s Quintet is five galaxies, but two are already in the process of colliding at the center of this Hubble image. Take a closer look at the galaxy group, discovered in 1877 by Édouard Stephan:
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Interacting galaxies, like this trio in NGC 7764A, are not as rare as you might think. Galaxies are rarely isolated, leading larger galaxies to pull smaller ones in, forming bigger, oddly shaped galaxies. Learn more about NGC 7764A here:
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That bright light in the bottom left of the image is actually a supernova in the outskirts of the galaxy NGC 4526, seen in this Hubble image. SN 1994D, as the supernova was designated, was caused by the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary star system. Credit: NASA, ESA.
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Nearly half of all galaxies we know of in the universe belong to a galaxy group—around 50 or fewer galaxies bound together by gravity. NGC 1706 is part of one:
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Get ready to take a first-class tour of the universe! . Dive into swirling galaxies and your favorite nebulas in some of Hubble’s greatest images and data used in science simulations. Watch the full video:
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Happy #WorldStorytellingDay! The Orion Nebula has inspired many stories and ideas about change and creation, from the origin of the Maya in Mesoamerica to the formation of new stars and heavy elements. Trace the story of observing Orion: #ViewSpace
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What do you need to build a snowman? Snow, carrot … dust and gas? The Snowman Nebula is a cloud of gas charged by the energy of nearby massive stars, causing it to glow. This Hubble image shows only a small section of the bright gas and dark knots of dust. Credit: NASA/ESA.
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Because of the speed that the Boomerang Nebula’s lobes expand, its temperature has fallen to less than half a degree Kelvin (around -459°F), making it the coldest naturally-occurring nebula that we know of in the universe. Read about its rapid expansion:
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The jets shot out by a young central star strike the matter around it, heating it and forming glowing masses called Herbig-Haro objects. They were named after scientists George Herbig and Guillermo Haro, who discovered nebulas with areas as bright as stars. Credit: NASA/ESA.
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The hot young stars at the top left are part of star cluster NGC 2074, a region of star formation. Learn how the ultraviolet light blazing from these stars is sculpting the nebula:
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The wave-like patterns that can be seen near the center of this image are the result of charged particles from a central pulsar striking surrounding, ring-shaped gas and creating shocks. Learn more about the effects of the Crab Nebula’s pulsar:
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Excuse me, just passing through! Bluish IC 1159 is brushing past its larger neighbor NGC 169. In the process, gravitational forces are pulling off streamers of stars, gas, and dust. Credit:
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Hubble’s 32nd anniversary image will come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow … there’ll be awe. 😉
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May we have this dance? Arp 273 features two spiral galaxies whirling around each other, destined to collide and merge. Their sequin-like star clusters and cinnamon swirls invite a closer look:
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Decisive evidence for supermassive black holes is one of Hubble’s most significant scientific accomplishments. This 1994 image shows a huge jet emanating from a spiraling disk of hot gas around the black hole in galaxy M87: #FBF
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The Tarantula Nebula’s claim to fame is that it’s the most active starburst region in the nearby universe. A plethora of young stars is at lower right. Some stars have already exploded, causing shockwaves that heated surrounding gas:
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The stellar winds that create the bubble in this image, known as N44F, move at about 4 million miles per hour (7 million kilometers per hour), thousands of times stronger than the strongest storm recorded on Earth. Read more about what causes this storm:
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Space is full of riddles to solve, but the blue stream of material connecting components of Arp 194 is one we’ve figured out. The “cosmic fountain” is stars, gas, and dust that stretches over 100,000 light-years:
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Like a celestial snow globe ❄️, the stars of Messier 5 seem to swirl and sparkle in honor of the holiday season. More than 100,000 stars are scattered across this Hubble image. #MomentOfZen Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA.
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If you stare at it long enough, this planetary nebula can look like a lot of things. What do the glowing remains of this dying star look like to you? . Learn more about stellar relic NGC 2392:
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Hubble welcomes 2021 with this image focusing on the peak of one of the “Pillars of Creation.” Underneath a surface battered by harsh radiation, young stars are about to emerge into the universe and have their time to shine. Happy New Year!
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At the tops of two dense columns of gas and dust in the vast Carina Nebula, still-forming stars send out telltale outflows in opposite directions as they preparing to emerge into the universe:
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Who needs a deep breath? . We suggest exploring galaxy NGC 1309. Bright blue areas of star formation dot its spiral arms. Dust lanes follow the spiral structure into a yellowish nucleus. End by looking for thousands of background galaxies. Credit:
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Even though the red galaxy near the center of this image looks tiny, it’s actually 10 times the mass of the Milky Way. Its gravity allows it to bend the light of the galaxy behind into a horseshoe shape. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA.
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In 1998 astronomers captured a fleeting moment in the lifetime of a star: the birth of a planetary nebula. The Stingray Nebula is the youngest known planetary nebula and only lit up about 40 years ago:
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Find all of your favorite Hubble and Webb telescope images in one place:
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This Hubble image actually shows three interacting galaxies. Really! The third galaxy can be found along the top spiral arm of the lower galaxy. It appears as a brown knot-like structure among a line of blue stars. Credit: ESA/NASA.
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Teamwork makes the dream work. With multiple observations from different ground- and space-based observatories—including Hubble—astronomers can build a fuller picture of a galaxy, including its stars and dust. Take NGC 3351 as an example:
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This spectacular light show is Herbig-Haro 111, seen in this Hubble image that combines visible and infrared light. The jets are made from rapidly moving ionized gas from newly formed stars. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini.
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The Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered what appears to be a twin pair of objects deep in space that look so weird, it took astronomers two years to figure out what they were looking at. (1/6)
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This account will be closed soon, but you can follow NASA’s official Hubble account @NASAHubble to get the latest news from the mission. Plus, follow along for award-winning videos and image sonifications like this one, showing the Pillars of Creation. And to see how great
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Galaxy, meet quasar … waiiiit a minute. They can’t! Galaxy NGC 4319 (center) is only 80 million light-years from Earth while Markarian 205 (top right) is 1 BILLION light-years away! Untangle the story—including why a spiral arm in NGC 4319 is misshapen:
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#NationalHatDay: One of the most famous “hats” in the cosmos might be the Sombrero galaxy, seen here in visible and infrared light thanks to the joined forces of Hubble and the Spitzer space telescopes:
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This image shows a young star punching through a cloak of dust with a jet of superheated gas. The glowing object to the lower left, which is known as a Herbig-Haro (HH) object—HH34 to be exact—is caused by this jet colliding with cooler material. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA.
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This ancient “tapestry” isn’t on show @ngadc, it’s 170,000 light-years away! The scene is shaped by massive stars. They carve pillars, ridges, and valleys among the gas and dust. Explore the science of this scene:
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Known as Hoag’s Object, this unusual ring-shaped galaxy displays a blue, outer ring composed of clusters of young, massive stars. Older stars dominate the yellow nucleus. Within the gap between them: a ring-shaped background galaxy. Credit:
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Another stunner from the Hubble Space Telescope! This gorgeous star-forming region in the neighboring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy contains NGC 346, a cluster of hot, blue, massive stars. Stellar winds carve the landscape of gas and dust:
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If you like looking at weirdly shaped galaxies, there's no better place than the "Arp Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies." One such Arp galaxy that is exploding with new stars is in this Hubble image of the Arp 143 system. (1/8)
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V838 Monocerotis—distant star or crystal ball? . This Hubble portrait highlights what’s called a light echo:
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Earth isn’t the only planet with Northern Lights! Auroras occur on other Solar System planets too. Here, Hubble’s ultraviolet snapshots of Saturn’s aurora are combined in a multi-day timelapse. Credit:
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Need some #inspo? The ripples in this image will continue to expand for millions of years! This is a 1995 Hubble image of the Cygnus Loop, an expanding blast wave from a supernova explosion that occurred about 20,000 years ago. See the “steps”:
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Does this planetary nebula remind you of anything? To us, it resembles a glass-blown holiday ornament, perfect for this season of decorating and tree-trimming. Hubble photographed NGC 5189 in 2012. Credit:
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WATCH: Seen from Hubble, these two spiral galaxies are wrapped up in a delicate dance that will likely lead them to evolve into an elliptical galaxy in the distant future. Arp 91 is 100 million light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA/ESA.
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Colliding galaxies are the professional dancers of our extended universe. Arp 256—two spiral galaxies just at the beginning stages of merging—can be likened to the romantic, smooth, sweeping motions of the waltz. Pick your favorite:
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In this timelapse, Hubble offers a rare view of an astronomical phenomenon visibly evolving over a span of only 14 years. Herbig-Haro 47 is a jet emanating from a pair of still-forming stars, creating bow-shaped shock waves:
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Light from the star V838 Monocerotis’ eruption is moving outward through space, illuminating the interstellar dust surrounding it. Experience the unusual variable star for yourself with our interactive. #Viewspace.
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This Hubble image of interacting galaxies, collectively known as Arp 142, provides an example of how a galaxy’s structure can be disrupted. The gravitational interactions with the lower galaxy stretch the gas and stars of the upper galaxy into long tails:
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The two galaxies in Arp 107 may look very different right now, but in the future, they will merge into one larger galaxy. Hubble observed the duo 465 million light-years from Earth. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA.
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A sandstorm on Arrakis, the desert planet from Frank Herbert’s #Dune? Nope! Ironically, this region in space has the watery name of the Lagoon Nebula. Taken by Hubble in 2010, this photo features swaths of dust as well as glowing hydrogen and nitrogen gas. Credit: NASA, ESA.
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Hubble observed nebula G35.2-0.7N, a high-energy environment filled with massive stars and a jet in the center that is headed in our direction. The jet is obscured by rich dust clouds that turned it bright orange. Credit: ESA/NASA.
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What do these six galaxies have in common? They are part of Hubble’s Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), the sharpest, most comprehensive ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies in the nearby universe. (1/7) 🧵
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In lieu of a fireplace, you can admire the beauty of the Flame Nebula. Found in the Orion Complex, ultraviolet light from a nearby star heats the gas in the nebula. As it cools, it forms the visible light behind the wisps of gas, giving it its fiery appearance. Credit: NASA, ESA.
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Hubble has provided fresh evidence that Saturn’s ring system is heating the planet’s atmosphere. The phenomenon has never before been seen in the Solar System, and potentially provides a tool for estimating if exoplanets have ring systems:
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Though all these galaxies appear near each other, most are separated by hundreds of millions of light-years, except two. Galaxy IC 1947 on the left side is the closest to NGC 1356, the large galaxy on the right. They are about 400,000 light-years apart. Credit: NASA/ESA.
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Who needs a shot of energy? We present monstrously massive stars, called the Trapezium (at center-left), captured by Hubble and Spitzer. This image is alight with ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. See which type of light matches each color:
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A stellar cornucopia! Hubble viewed the ancient globular cluster 47 Tucanae, home to at least a million stars. Visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere, it resides 14,500 light-years away and is about 12.4 billion years old:
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NGC 4921 is as strange as it is beautiful. Not only is it an anemic spiral galaxy with a low rate of star formation, but it’s one of the few spiral galaxies in a sea of ellipticals that make up the Coma Galaxy Cluster:
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One of the three segments that create the Chamaeleon Cloud Complex is shown in this Hubble composite image. This segment—Chamaeleon Cloud I—reveals dark, dusty clouds where stars are forming. Credit: NASA/ESA/K. Luhman and T. Esplin (Pennsylvania State University)/ESO.
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Stare closely into the eye …. Erm … we mean this planetary nebula! Hubble captured a dying star casting off its layers of gas and dust in 1996 (!), creating these dreamy, orange rings of gas. Hit “rewind” to see how groundbreaking it was:
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This Hubble image of a supernova remnant resembles a marigold, a flower commonly used to commemorate #DiaDeLosMuertos, a holiday honoring the dead in Mexico. This remnant is all that remains of a massive star’s explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud:
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Are you hip to planetary nebulas? Hubble captured superfine structures in the Ring Nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. Dark knots of dense gas are embedded along the inner rim. Find out what the colors mean:
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Mysterious dark rays extend across 36,000 light-years of space from the core of galaxy IC 5063. Astronomers have multiple ideas about their cause, including that they are shadows of a dusty ring surrounding the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA, ESA.
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They might appear like a pair of galaxies traveling through space together, but NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B are very far apart and just happen to be aligned in our view. A is 47 million light-years from Earth, while B is 212 million light-years away. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA.
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Shoutout to the O.G. deep field! Hubble’s first deep field, released in 1996, covers an area of sky just 1/30 the diameter of the full Moon, yet it contains several hundred galaxies that had never been seen before. Revisit this classic:
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This small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula was imaged by Hubble for its 24th anniversary in 2014. Hubble’s infrared view shows gas and dust sculpted by ultraviolet light and stellar winds, much like the Pillars of Creation:
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In honor of the #WinterSolstice, we present this glittering tapestry of stars in the Carina Nebula, which has one of the highest concentrations of massive, luminous stars in our entire Milky Way galaxy. What is the small, dark knot (left of center)?
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The massive binary star Eta Carinae is showcased in red, white, and blue in this Hubble portrait. The blue highlights magnesium in warm gas, seen in regions astronomers didn’t previously expect:
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Happy birthday to astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble, who was born on this day in 1889. Hubble, pictured with his cat, Copernicus, played an important role in expanding our understanding of the universe beyond the Milky Way through his study of galaxies.
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The bright red dots scattered throughout the landscape around Westerlund 2 are newly forming stars still wrapped in their cocoons of gas and dust. Take a closer look at the baby stars in this nebula:
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Yes, Hubble images are real! But it does take a lot of work to create the images you see in press releases from the data the telescope sends back. Without it, image artifacts would distract you from a Hubble image’s beauty and science:
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The shining pearl, a star at the center of NGC 1501’s shells of gas, evokes the image of an oyster, which inspired the nebula’s nickname. Astronomers have identified the star as a variable star— one that pulsates over time. #NationalOysterDay Credit: NASA/ESA.
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The mystery case was called Frontier Fields, investigated by astronomer-detectives starting #OnThisDay in 2013. This image shows a natural magnifying glass 🔎 that boosted Hubble’s ability to gather clues about the early universe. The game's afoot!
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Black holes could be seen as the supervillains in astronomy, destroying stars and holding light captive. However, the galactic black hole at the heart of dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 is providing a chance for redemption. (1/4)
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