Between 1990 and 2003, NASA scientists launched a series of technologically advanced telescopes into space. Called the Great Observatories, these four astronomical telescopes are designed to observe areas of space with equipment that can monitor the range of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The first of these telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, is perhaps the most famous in the group. (The other three are the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.) On the one hand, it is the only group in the group that can be actively maintained in space by astronauts.
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It is also a source of revolutionary discoveries about black holes, helped scientists learn more about the age and expansion of the universe, and provided unprecedented details about the characteristics of various objects in our own solar system.
As the Hubble Space Telescope turns 32 on April 24, 2022, this is a good time to reflect on some of its most breathtaking findings.
The Balloon Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8,000 light-years away. (NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team)
1 Balloon Nebula
When the Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 26th anniversary in historic 2016, it was able to capture an image that looked exactly like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Known as the Bubble Nebula or NGC 7635, it is an emission nebula located 8,000 light-years away; emission nebulae are interstellar clouds that consist of ionized gases. They, in turn, produce light with different wavelengths, and they can all be shown in this image in a particularly beautiful way.
NGC 1300 is considered a prototype of spiral galaxies with barriers. (NASA, ESA and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA))
2 Galaxy NGC1300
Astronomers have long struggled with the fact that despite advances in optical technology, you can really see so much of the earth. The Hubble Space Telescope, free from the links between gravity and atmospheric blur, can produce images with particular clarity. This one is from a galaxy similar to ours. Galaxy NGC1300 is a spiral galaxy with stripes, which means that it is spiral shaped, but has a rod-like structure at its core composed of stars. We live in our own spiral galaxy with barriers, the Milky Way galaxy, where our solar system is located, but because we are stuck inside it, we will never be able to look great at our own. This image may be relatively close to what it would look like if we could somehow look at the galaxy as reflected through a giant mirror.
This image shows the pillars as seen in visible light, capturing the multicolored glow of gas clouds, thin pips of dark cosmic dust and the rusty elephant trunks of the famous pillars of the nebula. (NASA, ESA / Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team)
3 The Pillars of Creation
This is one of the most famous images of the Hubble Space Telescope and for good reason. The pillars of creation exist in the Eagle Nebula (part of our Milky Way galaxy) and consist of interstellar dust and gas. They are magnificent not only because of their murky and unearthly beauty, but also because they are literally born stars. Hubble has been able to observe how these structures have evolved over time, to the delight of astronomers. It is one of the most famous Hubble images ever and is often printed on posters and prints of fine art. Processing the photo also helped restore the telescope’s image to the public after the public lost faith in the expensive project due to its cost and expensive repair mission in 1993. It was the first large photo to come out after the renovation, and as an astronomer , who worked there at the time, later recalled: “I think the audience was aware that ‘Wow, Hubble was really fixed’ and ‘Wow, look what Hubble can show us.'”
This image of Jupiter, taken by NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope on August 25, 2020, was taken when the planet was 653 million kilometers from Earth. (NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.)
4 Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, but it is also believed that due to the swirling gases, it can once be seen that they are confused in the upper atmosphere. The most famous structure of all is, of course, the Great Red Spot, which is 40 times deeper than the Mariana Trench (the deepest point on Earth). This image was taken by the telescope in August 2020, when Jupiter was 653 million kilometers from Earth. Even more fascinating is that you can see the moon of Jupiter Europe in the background on the left. Scientists believe that Europe, with its salty surface, could potentially host life.
The sombrero is located at the southern end of the rich cluster of Virgo galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in this group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. (NASA / ESA and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA))
5 The Sombrero Galaxy
The so-called Sombrero Galaxy earned its cheerful nickname by resembling the famous wide-brimmed Mexican hat. Officially given the much less exciting name of the galaxy NGC 4594, this galaxy exists in the constellation Virgo approximately 28 million light years from Earth. The halo around it is made up of dust, and this particular 2017 image is remarkable because it is one of the largest mosaics ever created based on Hubble images.
Galaxy UGC 2885 may be the largest in the local universe. (NASA, ESA and B. Holverda (University of Louisville))
6 Giant Galaxy UGC 2885
The giant galaxy UGC 2885 is remarkable because, as its name suggests, it may be the largest known galaxy in the local universe. It is also a spiral galaxy with barriers located in the constellation Perseus and contains 10 times more stars than our own galaxy. At the same time, it is relatively inactive compared to other galaxies, producing new stars at only about half the speed of new stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have learned that this galaxy has a small band in the annular structure of its nucleus. As a result, its classification was changed from a bulkhead spiral galaxy to a bulkhead spiral galaxy.
The Cancer Nebula is one of the most interesting and well-studied objects in astronomy. (NASA, ESA and Alison Lol / Jeff Hester (Arizona State University) Recognition: David De Martin (ESA / Hubble))
7 The Cancer Nebula
In the 19th century, an English astronomer and aristocrat known as William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Ross, noticed something in the constellation Taurus that reminded him of cancer. It turned out that what he observed was a remnant of a supernova and a pulsar wind nebula, but the image of the cancer apparently left a lasting impression. The so-called Cancer Nebula has since become one of the best-studied celestial objects in all of astronomy, and this image from the Hubble Space Telescope is the largest and most detailed ever taken by it. But for all their observational power, astronomers are still unsure of the exact distance of the nebula from Earth.
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest image of space in visible light. (NASA, ESA and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF team)
8 Hubble Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field
We kept the best for last.
In 2003 and 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope stared at a section of space that seemed empty. Yet after a long exposure, Hubble has revealed that the segment of space is far from it – rather full of thousands of dots and spots of light, all of which are entire galaxies with billions of stars.
Assembling this remarkable image, known as Hubble’s Ultra Deep Field, took nearly four months, from late 2003 to early 2004, and required 400 Hubble orbits around the Earth to do the job. It includes almost 10,000 galaxies: the nearest are well-defined elliptical and spiral, while the more distant galaxies are red dots that could date back to the history of the universe (ie when it was about 800 million years). It was a continuation of the deep field of Hubble, a similar image with a shorter exposure, which was made for a period of 10 days in 1995.
The Ultra Deep Field image may be one of the most important images ever made by humans. It illustrates the incredible vastness and size of our universe and how even in seemingly empty regions there are actually trillions of stars. It is humiliating to think that there is probably not just one intelligent civilization like ours in this image, but perhaps hundreds or thousands.
“As the images appeared on our screens, we couldn’t help but wonder if we somehow saw our own origins in all of this,” said Robert Williams, director of the Baltimore Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland. period, they said then.
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