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A Mote in Hubble's Eye
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Explore Hubble Science Hubble Space Telescope Eye on Infinity: NASA… Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 5 Min Read Eye on Infinity: NASA Celebrates Hubble’s 35th Year in Orbit
A selection of photogenic space targets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Left to Right: Mars, a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, part of planetary nebula NGC 2899, barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335. Credits:
NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) In celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, NASA is releasing an assortment of compelling images recently taken by Hubble, stretching from the planet Mars to star-forming regions, and a neighboring galaxy.
After more than three decades of perusing the universe, Hubble remains a household name — the most well-recognized and scientifically productive telescope in history. The Hubble mission is a glowing success story of America’s technological prowess, unyielding scientific curiosity, and a reiteration of our nation’s pioneering spirit.
“Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago. Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories, and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble.”
Perched above Earth’s blurry atmosphere, Hubble’s crystal-clear views have been nothing less than transformative for the public’s perception of the cosmos. Through its evocative imagery, Hubble has made astronomy very relevant, engaging, and accessible for people of all ages. Hubble snapshots can portray the universe as awesome, mysterious, and beautiful — and at the same time chaotic, overwhelming, and foreboding.
A selection of photogenic space targets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Upper left: Mars. Upper right: planetary nebula NGC 2899. Lower left: a small portion of the Rosette Nebula. Lower right: barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335. Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) The 24,000-pound observatory was tucked away inside the space shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay and lofted into low Earth orbit on April 24, 1990. As the shuttle Discovery thundered skyward, the NASA commentator described Hubble as a “new window on the universe.” The telescope turned out to be exactly as promised, and more.
More scientific papers than ever are based on Hubble data, thanks to the dedication, perseverance, and skills of engineers, scientists, and mission operators. Astronauts chased and rendezvoused with Hubble on five servicing missions in which they upgraded Hubble’s cameras, computers, and other support systems. The servicing missions took place from 1993 to 2009.
The telescope’s mission got off to a shaky start in 1990 when an unexpected flaw was found in the observatory’s nearly eight-foot diameter primary mirror. Astronauts gallantly came to the rescue on the first shuttle servicing mission in December 1993 to improve Hubble’s sharpness with corrective optics.
To date, Hubble has made nearly 1.7 million observations, looking at approximately 55,000 astronomical targets. Hubble discoveries have resulted in over 22,000 papers and over 1.3 million citations as of February 2025. All the data collected by Hubble is archived and currently adds up to over 400 terabytes, representing the biggest dataset for a NASA astrophysics mission besides the James Webb Space Telescope.
Hubble’s long operational life has allowed astronomers to return to the same cosmic scenes multiple times to observe changes that happened during more than three decades: seasonal variability on the planets in our solar system, black hole jets travelling at nearly the speed of light, stellar convulsions, asteroid collisions, expanding supernova bubbles, and much more.
Hubble’s Senior Project Scientist, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, takes you on a tour of all four Hubble 35th anniversary images.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris; Narrator: Dr. Jennifer Wiseman Before 1990, powerful optical telescopes on Earth could see only halfway across the cosmos. Estimates for the age of the universe disagreed by a big margin. Supermassive black holes were only suspected to be the powerhouses behind a rare zoo of energetic phenomena. Not a single planet had been seen around another star.
Among its long list of breakthroughs: Hubble’s deep field images unveiled myriad galaxies dating back to the early universe. The telescope also allowed scientists to precisely measure the universe’s expansion, find that supermassive black holes are common among galaxies, and make the first measurement of the atmospheres of exoplanets. Hubble also contributed to the discovery of dark energy, the mysterious phenomenon accelerating the expansion of universe, leading to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The relentless pace of Hubble’s trailblazing discoveries kick-started a new generation of space telescopes for the 21st century. Hubble provided the first observational evidence that there were myriad distant galaxies for Webb to pursue in infrared wavelengths that reach even farther beyond Hubble’s gaze. Now, Hubble and Webb are often being used in complement to study everything from exoplanets to galaxy evolution.
Hubble’s planned successor, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, will have a significantly larger mirror than Hubble’s to study the universe in visible and ultraviolet light. It will be significantly sharper than Hubble and up to 100 times more sensitive to starlight. The Habitable Worlds Observatory will advance science across all of astrophysics, as Hubble has done for over three decades. A major goal of the future mission is to identify terrestrial planets around neighboring stars that might be habitable.
The Hubble Space Telescope continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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Mosaic of Hubble 35th Anniversary Targets
A selection of photogenic space targets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Upper left: Mars. Upper right: planetary nebula NGC 2899. Lower left: a small portion of the Rosette Nebula. Lower right: barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335.
Mars Near Opposition 2024
This is a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. Mars was approximately 61 million miles from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance.
Planetary Nebula NGC 2899
This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas propelled by radiation and stellar winds. The colors are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen.
Dark Clouds in Rosette Nebula
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image.
Rosette Nebula Context Image
The Rosette Nebula is a vast star-forming region, 100 light-years across, that lies at one end of a giant molecular cloud. The background image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, while the inset is a small portion of the nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
NGC 5335
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk.
Mars Near Opposition Compass Image
These two images of Mars and its moon Phobos were captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on consecutive days in December 2024. Compass arrows and a color key are provided for reference.
Planetary Nebula NGC 2899 Compass Image
This image of planetary nebula NGC 2899 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and color key for reference.
Dark Clouds in Rosette Nebula Compass Image
This image of dark clouds in the Rosette Nebula was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and color key for reference.
NGC 5335 Compass Image
This image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and color key for reference.
Mars Rotation
This animation was assembled from a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the Hubble observations, Mars was approximately 61 million miles from Earth. The photos were then mapped onto a sphere, which is the…
Planetary Nebula NGC 2899
This video zooms across 6,500 light-years through a star-studding field to visit the planetary nebula NGC 2899, as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula has a diagonal bipolar structure formed by a cylindrical-shaped outflow of hot gasses and radiation from the c…
Rosette Nebula
This video offers a close-up look at a small portion of the magnificent Rosette Nebula, as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Though Hubble cannot take three-dimensional pictures, this video is a visualization treatment of the photo to give a sense of depth with foregrou…
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Last Updated Apr 23, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
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Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Provides Bird’s-Eye View of Andromeda Galaxy’s Ecosystem
A view of the distribution of known satellite galaxies orbiting the large Andromeda galaxy (M31), located 2.5 million light-years away. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Alessandro Savino (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Akira Fujii DSS2 Located 2.5 million light-years away, the majestic Andromeda galaxy appears to the naked eye as a faint, spindle-shaped object roughly the angular size of the full Moon. What backyard observers don’t see is a swarm of nearly three dozen small satellite galaxies circling the Andromeda galaxy, like bees around a hive.
These satellite galaxies represent a rambunctious galactic “ecosystem” that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is studying in unprecedented detail. This ambitious Hubble Treasury Program used observations from more than a whopping 1,000 Hubble orbits. Hubble’s optical stability, clarity, and efficiency made this ambitious survey possible. This work included building a precise 3D mapping of all the dwarf galaxies buzzing around Andromeda and reconstructing how efficiently they formed new stars over the nearly 14 billion years of the universe’s lifetime.
This is a wide-angle view of the distribution of known satellite galaxies orbiting the large Andromeda galaxy (M31), located 2.5 million light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to study the entire population of 36 mini-galaxies circled in yellow. Andromeda is the bright spindle-shaped object at image center. All the dwarf galaxies seem to be confined to a plane, all orbiting in the same direction. The wide view is from ground-based photography. Hubble’s optical stability, clarity, and efficiency made this ambitious survey possible. Hubble close up snapshots of four dwarf galaxies are on image right. The most prominent dwarf galaxy is M32 (NGC 221), a compact ellipsoidal galaxy that might be the remnant core of a larger galaxy that collided with Andromeda a few billion years ago. NASA, ESA, Alessandro Savino (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Akira Fujii DSS2 In the study published in The Astrophysical Journal, Hubble reveals a markedly different ecosystem from the smaller number of satellite galaxies that circle our Milky Way. This offers forensic clues as to how our Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda have evolved differently over billions of years. Our Milky Way has been relatively placid. But it looks like Andromeda has had a more dynamic history, which was probably affected by a major merger with another big galaxy a few billion years ago. This encounter, and the fact that Andromeda is as much as twice as massive as our Milky Way, could explain its plentiful and diverse dwarf galaxy population.
Surveying the Milky Way’s entire satellite system in such a comprehensive way is very challenging because we are embedded inside our galaxy. Nor can it be accomplished for other large galaxies because they are too far away to study the small satellite galaxies in much detail. The nearest galaxy of comparable mass to the Milky Way beyond Andromeda is M81, at nearly 12 million light-years.
This bird’s-eye view of Andromeda’s satellite system allows us to decipher what drives the evolution of these small galaxies. “We see that the duration for which the satellites can continue forming new stars really depends on how massive they are and on how close they are to the Andromeda galaxy,” said lead author Alessandro Savino of the University of California at Berkeley. “It is a clear indication of how small-galaxy growth is disturbed by the influence of a massive galaxy like Andromeda.”
“Everything scattered in the Andromeda system is very asymmetric and perturbed. It does appear that something significant happened not too long ago,” said principal investigator Daniel Weisz of the University of California at Berkeley. “There’s always a tendency to use what we understand in our own galaxy to extrapolate more generally to the other galaxies in the universe. There’s always been concerns about whether what we are learning in the Milky Way applies more broadly to other galaxies. Or is there more diversity among external galaxies? Do they have similar properties? Our work has shown that low-mass galaxies in other ecosystems have followed different evolutionary paths than what we know from the Milky Way satellite galaxies.”
For example, half of the Andromeda satellite galaxies all seem to be confined to a plane, all orbiting in the same direction. “That’s weird. It was actually a total surprise to find the satellites in that configuration and we still don’t fully understand why they appear that way,” said Weisz.
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This animation begins with a view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. We zoom through a scattering of foreground stars and enter the inky blackness of intergalactic space. We cross 2.5 million light-years to reach the Andromeda system, consisting of 36 dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting the giant spindle-shaped Andromeda galaxy at image center. An ambitious survey by the Hubble Space Telescope was made to plot the galaxy locations in three-dimensional space. In this video we circle around a model of the Andromeda system based on real Hubble observational data. NASA, ESA, Christian Nieves (STScI), Alessandro Savino (UC Berkeley); Acknowledgment: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), Robert Gendler The brightest companion galaxy to Andromeda is Messier 32 (M32). This is a compact ellipsoidal galaxy that might just be the remnant core of a larger galaxy that collided with Andromeda a few billion years ago. After being gravitationally stripped of gas and some stars, it continued along its orbit. Galaxy M32 contains older stars, but there is evidence it had a flurry of star formation a few billion years ago. In addition to M32, there seems to be a unique population of dwarf galaxies in Andromeda not seen in the Milky Way. They formed most of their stars very early on, but then they didn’t stop. They kept forming stars out of a reservoir of gas at a very low rate for a much longer time.
“Star formation really continued to much later times, which is not at all what you would expect for these dwarf galaxies,” continued Savino. “This doesn’t appear in computer simulations. No one knows what to make of that so far.”
“We do find that there is a lot of diversity that needs to be explained in the Andromeda satellite system,” added Weisz. “The way things come together matters a lot in understanding this galaxy’s history.”
Hubble is providing the first set of imaging where astronomers measure the motions of the dwarf galaxies. In another five years Hubble or NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be able to get the second set of observations, allowing astronomers to do a dynamical reconstruction for all 36 of the dwarf galaxies, which will help astronomers to rewind the motions of the entire Andromeda ecosystem billions of years into the past.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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NASA’s Hubble Traces Hidden History of Andromeda Galaxy
Hubble’s High-Definition Panoramic View of the Andromeda Galaxy
Explore the Night Sky: Messier 31
Hubble’s Galaxies
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Science Contact:
Alessandro Savino
University of California, Berkeley, California
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Last Updated Feb 27, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Hubble Space Telescope Andromeda Galaxy Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Galaxy Details and Mergers
Reshaping Our Cosmic View: Hubble Science Highlights
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
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An image of a coastal marshland combines aerial and satellite views in a technique similar to hyperspectral imaging. Combining data from multiple sources gives scientists information that can support environmental management.John Moisan When it comes to making real-time decisions about unfamiliar data – say, choosing a path to hike up a mountain you’ve never scaled before – existing artificial intelligence and machine learning tech doesn’t come close to measuring up to human skill. That’s why NASA scientist John Moisan is developing an AI “eye.”
Oceanographer John MoisanNASA Moisan, an oceanographer at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Virginia, said AI will direct his A-Eye, a movable sensor. After analyzing images his AI would not just find known patterns in new data, but also steer the sensor to observe and discover new features or biological processes.
“A truly intelligent machine needs to be able to recognize when it is faced with something truly new and worthy of further observation,” Moisan said. “Most AI applications are mapping applications trained with familiar data to recognize patterns in new data. How do you teach a machine to recognize something it doesn’t understand, stop and say ‘What was that? Let’s take a closer look.’ That’s discovery.”
Finding and identifying new patterns in complex data is still the domain of human scientists, and how humans see plays a large part, said Goddard AI expert James MacKinnon. Scientists analyze large data sets by looking at visualizations that can help bring out relationships between different variables within the data.
Infrared images like this one from a marsh area on the Maryland/Virginia Eastern Shore coastal barrier and back bay regions reveal clues to scientists about plant health, photosynthesis, and other conditions that affect vegetation and ecosystems.John Moisan It’s another story to train a computer to look at large data streams in real time to see those connections, MacKinnon said. Especially when looking for correlations and inter-relationships in the data that the computer hasn’t been trained to identify.
Moisan intends first to set his A-Eye on interpreting images from Earth’s complex aquatic and coastal regions. He expects to reach that goal this year, training the AI using observations from prior flights over the Delmarva Peninsula. Follow-up funding would help him complete the optical pointing goal.
“How do you pick out things that matter in a scan?” Moisan asked. “I want to be able to quickly point the A-Eye at something swept up in the scan, so that from a remote area we can get whatever we need to understand the environmental scene.”
Moisan’s on-board AI would scan the collected data in real-time to search for significant features, then steer an optical sensor to collect more detailed data in infrared and other frequencies.
Thinking machines may be set to play a larger role in future exploration of our universe. Sophisticated computers taught to recognize chemical signatures that could indicate life processes, or landscape features like lava flows or craters, might offer to increase the value of science data returned from lunar or deep-space exploration.
Today’s state-of-the-art AI is not quite ready to make mission-critical decisions, MacKinnon said.
“You need some way to take a perception of a scene and turn that into a decision and that’s really hard,” he said. “The scary thing, to a scientist, is to throw away data that could be valuable. An AI might prioritize what data to send first or have an algorithm that can call attention to anomalies, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be a scientist looking at that data that results in discoveries.”
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Last Updated Feb 10, 2025 Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Artificial Intelligence (AI) Goddard Technology People of Goddard Technology Wallops Flight Facility Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566.ESA/NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the center of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disk takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye.
As NGC 2566 appears to gaze at us, astronomers gaze right back, using Hubble to survey the galaxy’s star clusters and star-forming regions. The Hubble data are especially valuable for studying stars that are just a few million years old; these stars are bright at the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive. Using these data, researchers can measure the ages of NGC 2566’s stars, which helps piece together the timeline of the galaxy’s star formation and the exchange of gas between star-forming clouds and the stars themselves.
Hubble regularly teams up with other astronomical observatories to examine objects like NGC 2566, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Webb data complements Hubble’s by going beyond the infrared wavelengths of light Hubble can see, better defining areas of warm, glowing dust. At even longer wavelengths, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of 66 radio telescopes that work together can capture detailed images of the clouds of gas and dust in which stars form. Together, Hubble, Webb, and ALMA provide an overview of the formation, lives, and deaths of stars in galaxies across the universe.
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More 35th Anniversary 2 min read
Hubble Spies a Cosmic Eye
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the center of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disk takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye.
As NGC 2566 appears to gaze at us, astronomers gaze right back, using Hubble to survey the galaxy’s star clusters and star-forming regions. The Hubble data are especially valuable for studying stars that are just a few million years old; these stars are bright at the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive. Using these data, researchers can measure the ages of NGC 2566’s stars, which helps piece together the timeline of the galaxy’s star formation and the exchange of gas between star-forming clouds and the stars themselves.
Hubble regularly teams up with other astronomical observatories to examine objects like NGC 2566, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Webb data complements Hubble’s by going beyond the infrared wavelengths of light Hubble can see, better defining areas of warm, glowing dust. At even longer wavelengths, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of 66 radio telescopes that work together can capture detailed images of the clouds of gas and dust in which stars form. Together, Hubble, Webb, and ALMA provide an overview of the formation, lives, and deaths of stars in galaxies across the universe.
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How does Hubble work with other telescopes?
Hubble’s Galaxies
Galaxy Details and Mergers
Hubble Focus E-Book: Galaxies through Space and Time
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Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Dec 19, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble’s Partners in Science
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
Hubble’s Galaxies
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