5 dazzling interstellar images to celebrate Hubble’s 35th birthday

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This week, the famed NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope turns 35 years-young. Launched on April 24 1990, the space telescope fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. 

The Hubble Space Telescope launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-31), and deployed into Earth orbit the following day, marking the beginning of its 35 years of exploring the cosmos.
The Hubble Space Telescope launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-31), and deployed into Earth orbit the following day, marking the beginning of its 35 years of exploring the cosmos. CREDIT: NASA.

In its over three decades of service, Hubble has taken over 1.6 million observations, traveled 13.4 billion light-years, and roughly 21,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published back home on Earth about its discoveries. Hubble also snapped the first space-based images of an asteroid breaking, the first confirmation that the Andromeda Galaxy will collide with our Milky Way Galaxy, and many more famous firsts. 

In celebration of its big birthday, gaze at five recent images taken by the famed telescope.

Cosmic Pillar in Eagle Nebula

A tall, thin structure of dark gas clouds. It is darker and broader at the base and broadens out again at the top, with spikes, fingers and wisps of gas protruding in all directions from its head. Some parts are illuminated, but most is dark, lit only at the edges from behind. A wall of colourful gas lies behind it, bluish at the top and redder towards the bottom. Several blue and gold stars are scattered across it.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a towering structure of billowing gas in the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). The pillar rises 9.5 light-years tall and is 7,000 light-years away from Earth. CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

An earlier image of the Eagle Nebula–aka called Messier 16–was included as part of Hubble’s 15th anniversary celebration in 2005. This year, Hubble is using new image processing techniques to show this star factory in a new light.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), a pillar of cold gas and dust 9.5 light-years tall is unfurling along the length of the new image. The dust and gas pillar is only one part of the Eagle Nebula, whose name is inspired by its appearance. Dark clouds shape the nebula’s shining edge, and look like a majestic eagle spreading its wings. It is roughly 7,000 light-years away from Earth near the famous Pillars of Creation, which Hubble has imaged multiple times and was one of the early images sent back by the newer James Webb Space Telescope.

Squid in the Whale

A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center glows brightly. From the sides of the galaxy’s core emerge spiral arms which wind through the round disc of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark-red dust. Some faint stars can be seen around the galaxy, as well as a particularly bright star in the lower left of the image.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy. CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker.

Spiral galaxy Messier 77, also called the Squid Galaxy, sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). The name Squid Galaxy refers to the extended, filamentary structure curling around M77’s disk-like the tentacles of a squid. 

Hubble previously released an image of the Squid Galaxy in 2013. This image released on April 18 incorporates the space telescope’s recent observations made with different filters. It also used updated image processing techniques, which allow astronomers to see this spiral galaxy in more detail.

Stellar Star Sculptors

A star cluster within a nebula. The background is filled with thin, pale blue clouds. Parts are thicker and pinker in colour. The cluster is made up of bright blue stars that illuminate the nebula around them. Large arcs of dense dust curve around, before and behind the clustered stars, pressed together by the stars’ radiation. Behind the clouds of the nebula can be seen large numbers of orange stars.
This new image showcases NGC 346, a dazzling young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 200 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble). ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. M

Hubble’s first observation made in infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths shows a  new look at a young star cluster NGC 346. The “star-forming factory” is home to more than 2,500 newborn stars. Some of its biggest stars are even larger than our sun and shine with an intense blue light in this image. Remnants of the births from many of the stars in the cluster glow in the sparkling  pink nebula and dark clouds.

NGC 346 is in the Small Magellanic Cloud. This satellite galaxy of our home Milky Way galaxy is about 200,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud has less elements heavier than helium than the Milky Way with conditions more similar to what existed in the earliest days of the universe. 

Cosmic Guitar

Elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (upper left) and spiral galaxy NGC 3561A (lower right) form a shimmering guitar shape in the ongoing merger known collectively as Arp 105.
Elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (upper left) and spiral galaxy NGC 3561A (lower right) form a shimmering guitar shape in the ongoing merger known collectively as Arp 105. CREDITS: NASA, ESA and M. West (Lowell Observatory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America).

Even with a seemingly infinite amount of elbow room, sometimes galaxies stick together thanks to gravity. Arp 105 is one of these. It’s an ongoing merger between elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B and spiral galaxy NGC 3561A, characterized by a long tidal tail of stars and gas that is more than 362,000 light-years long. This unique shape gives this cosmic merger its nickname: The Guitar.

The long lane of dark dust coming from elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B may be feeding the bright blue star-forming area on the base of the guitar. This region known as Ambartsumian’s Knot is a tidal dwarf galaxy. These are a type of star-forming system that develops from the debris in tidal arms of interacting galaxies, according to NASA.

Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy is an oblong, pale white disc with a glowing core. It appears nearly edge-on but is slanted slightly in the front, presenting a slightly top-down view of the inner region of the galaxy and its bright core. The outer disc is darker with shades of brown and black. Different coloured distant galaxies and various stars are speckled among the black background of space surrounding the galaxy.
The Sombrero Galaxy is an oblong, pale white disc with a glowing core. It appears nearly edge-on but is slanted slightly in the front, presenting a slightly top-down view of the inner region of the galaxy and its bright core. The outer disc is darker with shades of brown and black. Different coloured distant galaxies and various stars are speckled among the black background of space surrounding the galaxy. CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

The Sombrero Galaxy is about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It boasts a softly luminous bulge and sharply outlined disc, which resemble the rounded crown and broad brim of a sombrero.

Hubble has imaged this “fan-favorite” galaxy several times in the past 20 years, including a well-known image from October 2003. This new image reveals finer detail in the galaxy’s disc, as well as more background stars and galaxies. While it is packed with stars, the Sombrero Galaxy is not really a major area of star formation. However, it does surround a supermassive black hole that is more than 2,000 times bigger than the Milky Way’s central black hole.

For more on Hubble’s 35th anniversary, you can download NASA’s eBook Hubble’s Beautiful Universe.

 

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Laura is Popular Science’s news editor, overseeing coverage of a wide variety of subjects. Laura is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life.



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