This visible-light image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope to celebrate its 28th anniversary. It shows the heart of the Lagoon Nebula, a region about 4,000 light-years across.NASA, ESA, and STScI
Come Tuesday, April 24, and the Hubble Space Telescope would have completed 28 years in space, observing the universe and sending back images in unprecedented detail. This eye in the sky has greatly helped improve our understanding of space, and the various and amazing objects that are in it.
Like they do every year, the telescope’s operators — NASA and the European Space Agency — released some impressive images captured by Hubble to celebrate its anniversary. The images showed the Lagoon Nebula, located about 4,000 light-years away, in both visible light and infrared.
But over the years, the space-based observatory has captured a very large number of stunning and breathtaking images, and we present here a selection from among its vast library.
Hubble will be succeeded by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a next-generation device with capabilities far exceeding those of Hubble. JWST will be able to look into places that are obscure to Hubble.
This image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the Lagoon Nebula in infrared light. The region visible in this image is about 4 light-years across.NASA, ESA, and STScIHubble Space Telescope revisited the famous Pillars of Creation, revealing a sharper and wider view of the structures in this visible-light image.NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)The crab nebula was created as a result of a supernova explosion. The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The blue in the filaments in the outer part of the nebula represents neutral oxygen. Green is singly ionized sulfur, and red indicates doubly ionized oxygen.NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)This Hubble image of the Bubble Nebula, about 7,100 light-years away, was released on the 26th anniversary of the telescope's launch.NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a sparkling jewel box full of stars at the heart of the Milky Way.NASA, ESA, and T. Brown (STScI)NGC 3972 is a spiral galaxy located about 65 million light-years away and is about 45,000 light-years across in size.NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)Spiral galaxy NGC 1015 is seen directly head-on in this Hubble image. The galaxy, which is about 67,000 light-years across, is located 118 million light-years away from Earth.NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)As if this Hubble Space Telescope picture isn't cluttered enough with myriad galaxies, nearby asteroids photobomb the image, their trails sometimes mimicking background astronomical phenomena.NASA, ESA, and B. Sunnquist and J. Mack (STScI)The Hubble image shows the central region of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The young and dense star cluster R136, containing hundreds of young, blue stars, can be seen at the lower right of the image.NASA, ESA, and P. Crowther (University of Sheffield)In this Hubble image, a newborn star shoots twin jets out into space as a sort of birth announcement to the universe. This took place 1,350 light-years away, in a stellar nursery called the Orion B molecular cloud complex.NASA and ESAThe white dwarf star Stein 2051 B occupies the center of this Hubble image, and is located 17 light-years away. The smaller star just below it is actually 5,000 light-years from Earth.NASA, ESA, and K. Sahu (STScI)This image of the remains of supernova 1987A combines multi-wavelength data from three different telescopes, including Hubble. The supernova was 163,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud.NASA, ESA, and A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)This image captured by Hubble shows the debris disk around a star located 169 light-years away. Planets form in this disk around stars.NASA, ESA, G. Schneider (University of Arizona), and the HST/GO 12228 TeamIn 2016, Hubble captured images of Comet 252P as it came within 3.3 million miles of Earth.NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)Hubble Space Telescope has also been used to study auroras – stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere – on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter.NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)The tiny Martian moon Phobos is seen over 22 minutes and 13 Hubble exposures as it moves along its orbit around Mars.NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
