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A mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the centre of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula’s eerie interior bluish glow. The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star. World History Archive/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: whphotos116539
Since being launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been a key part in answering many questions about the universe, at the same time uncovering an abundance of new questions. As important and exciting as all the breakthroughs are the legacy of the Hubble Space Telescope will be all of the awe-inspiring photos of deep space.
The idea of a space telescope was first conceived by German scientist Hermann Oberth in 1923. It was then American astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer Jr. wrote a paper proposing a space telescope in 1946. Spitzer followed up the paper by spending 50 years making the telescope a reality. In 1977 all the funding was in place and work on the telescope began.
Once operational, the Hubble looked deeper into space than any other telescope bringing the beauty of the universe to the people of earth. Below is a collection of 21 photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope after you’re done enjoying them check out the much larger collection back at Newscom.
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A photo of the Butterfly Nebula from the rejuvenated NASA Hubble Space Telescope illustrates the newest imagery from the latest equipment installed by NASA astronauts. What resembles dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit as part of the planetary nebula. A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. NASA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericassix417552
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Interacting Spiral Galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163. In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. The near-collision has been caught in images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. World History Archive/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: whphotos114116
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Nearly 200 000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space, in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. As the Milky Ways gravity gently tugs on its neighbours gas clouds, they collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a kaleidoscope of colours, visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Nasa/Esa Hubble Space Telescope/ZUMA Press/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasnine743109
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This new Hubble Space Telescope image released on January 9, 2014 shows the scatterings of bright stars and thick dust that make up spiral galaxy Messier 83, otherwise known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. One of the largest and closest barred spirals to us, this galaxy is dramatic and mysterious; it has hosted a large number of supernova explosions, and appears to have a double nucleus lurking at its core. Messier 83 is not one to blend into the background. Located some 15 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Serpent), it is one of the most conspicuous galaxies of its type in our skies. NASA/UPI/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: upiphotostwo285885
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Newborn stars emerging from pockets of interstellar gas in the Eagle Nebula. The Hubble telescope image shows an area of space in the constellation Serpens, seven thousand light-years from Earth. Everett Collection/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: evhistorypix005940
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The galaxy of VV 340 provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge, much like the Milky Way and Andromeda is expected do billions of years from now. X-ray NASA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasfive146182
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A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the heart of the Lagoon Nebula. Seen as a massive cloud of glowing dust and gas, bombarded by the energetic radiation of new stars, this placid name hides a dramatic reality, a view of gas and dust sculpted by intense radiation from hot young stars deep in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8). NASA, ESA/ZUMApress/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasthree002109
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This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. During the course of the collision, billions of stars will be formed. The brightest and most compact of these star birth regions are called super star clusters. The new image allows astronomers to better distinguish between the stars and super star clusters created in the collision of two spiral galaxies. NASA/ZUMA Press/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericaseight173649
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The Eagle nebula, an industrious star-making factory located 7,000 light-years away in the Serpens constellation. The image shows the region’s entire network of turbulent clouds and newborn stars in infrared light. World History Archive/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: whphotos125609
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Pictures from Hubble Space Telescope are giving astronomers a detailed view of the Whirlpool galaxy’s (AKA M51) spiral arms & dust clouds, which are the birth sites of massive & luminous stars. The Hubble Heritage Team/NASA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasseven817983
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A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Cat’s Eye Nebula, located 3,000 light-years from Earth. NASA/UPI/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: upiphotos903648
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This image, called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), combines Hubble observations taken over the past decade of a small patch of sky in the constellation of Fornax. With a total of over two million seconds of exposure time, it is the deepest image of the Universe ever made, combining data from previous images including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (taken in 2002 and 2003) and Hubble Ultra Deep Field Infrared. Nasa/Esa Hubble Space Telescope/ZUMA Press/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasnine743389
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A portrait of Stephan’s Quintet, also known as Hickson Compact Group 92, a group of five galaxies. NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group. Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters. These interactions have sparked a frenzy of star birth in the central pair of galaxies. This drama is being played out against a rich backdrop of faraway galaxies. NASA/ZUMA Press/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasseven377403
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A colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are the homesteaders of our Milky Way galaxy. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old. The cluster lies about 16,000 light-years from Earth. NASA/ZUMA Press/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasseven377404
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In this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope the delicate filaments are actually sheets of debris from a stellar explosion in a neighboring galaxy. This filamentary material will eventually be recycled into building new generations of stars in the LMC. Our own Sun and planets are constructed from similar debris of supernovae that exploded in the Milky Way billions of years ago. NASA HO/EPA/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: epaphotostwo749375
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This undated Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy Messier 64 (M 64). The galaxy, which is located in the northern constellation Coma Berenices, some 17 million light-years from Earth, was formed by the collision of two galaxies. NASA/UPI/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: upiphotos903687
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The Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-yearsof the nebula, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire nebula is 7 light-years long. The Cone Nebula resides 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. NASA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasseven930056
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NASA’s Hubble Telescope captured an image of Eta Carinae. The field of view is approximately 30 arcseconds across.The larger of the two stars in the Eta Carinae system is a huge and unstable star that is nearing the end of its life, and the event that the 19th century astronomers observed was a stellar near-death experience. Scientists call these outbursts supernova impostor events, because they appear similar to supernovae but stop just short of destroying their star. Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990. ESA/NASA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. License this image from Newscom.com: zumaamericasfive504794