This new Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the beating heart of one of the most visually appealing, and most studied, supernova remnants known — the Crab Nebula.
Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras - stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere - on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. This observation program is supported by measurements made by NASA's Juno spacecraft, currently on its way to Jupiter.
A new Hubble Space Telescope image shows a firestorm of star birth lighting up one end of the diminutive galaxy Kiso 5639. The dwarf galaxy is shaped like a flattened pancake, but because it is tilted edge-on, it resembles a skyrocket, with a brilliant blazing head and a long, star-studded tail. Kiso 5639 is a member of a class of galaxies called "tadpoles" because of their bright heads and elongated tails. This galaxy resides relatively nearby, at 82 million light-years away. Tadpoles are rare in the local universe but more common in the distant cosmos, suggesting that many galaxies pass through a phase like this as they evolve.
New images obtained on May 16, 2016, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope confirm the presence of a dark vortex on Neptune. Though similar features were seen during the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune in 1989 and by Hubble in 1994, this vortex is the first one observed on Neptune in the 21st century.
Hubble Space Telescope astronomers have discovered that the universe is expanding 5-9% percent faster than expected. They made the discovery by refining the universe's current expansion rate to unprecedented accuracy, reducing the uncertainty to only 2.4%. The team made the refinements by developing innovative techniques that improved the precision of distance measurements to faraway galaxies. These measurements are fundamental to making more precise calculations of how fast the universe expands with time, a value called the Hubble constant.
On May 12, 2016, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of Mars, when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth. The photo reveals details as small as 20 miles to 30 miles across. This observation was made just a few days before Mars opposition on May 22, when the sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth, and Mars will be 47 million miles from Earth.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Comet 252P/LINEAR after the comet passed by Earth on March 21. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. The Hubble images taken on April 4 reveal a narrow, well-defined jet of dust ejected by the comet's icy nucleus. The jet also appears to change direction in the images, which is evidence that the comet's nucleus is spinning.
Astronomers using the Hubble telescope have discovered a tiny moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake. The moon is estimated to be 100 miles wide and is 13,000 miles away from Makemake.
Astronomers are releasing today this new Hubble image of the Bubble Nebula to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the Hubble telescope's launch into Earth orbit on April 24, 1990. The Bubble Nebula is a giant cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the brilliant star inside it.
Astronomers have uncovered one of the biggest supermassive black holes, with the mass of 17 billion suns, in an unlikely place: the cente of a galaxy that lies in a quiet backwater of the universe. The observations, made with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini telescope in Hawaii, indicate that these monster objects may be more common than once thought. The results of this study are released in the journal Nature. To learn even more, join astronomers and scientists during a live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3pm EDT on Thurs., April 7, at http://hbbl.us/z7j.
Peering deep into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, this Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a rich tapestry of more than half a million stars. Except for a few blue, foreground stars, the stars are part of the Milky Way’s nuclear star cluster, the most massive and densest star cluster in our galaxy. To learn more, join astronomers and scientists during a live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3pm EDT today (Thurs., March 31) at http://hbbl.us/y6k.
NASA has selected 36 fellows for its prestigious Einstein, Hubble, and Sagan Fellowships. Each postdoctoral fellowship provides three-years of support to awarded to pursue independent research in astronomy and astrophysics. The new fellows will begin their programs in the fall of 2016 at a host university or research center of their choosing in the United States.
By pushing the Hubble to its limits, astronomers have shattered the cosmic distance record by viewing the farthest galaxy ever seen. This galaxy existed just 400 million years after the big bang and provides new insights into the first generation of galaxies. This is the first time that the distance of an object so far away has been measured from its spectrum, which makes the measurement extremely reliable. The results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. Join a live Hubble Hangout discussion with the astronomers at 3:00 p.m. EST today (Thurs., March 3, 2016) at http://hbbl.us/y6H.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have measured the rotation rate of 'super-Jupiter-class' exoplanet 2M1207b by observing the varied brightness in its atmosphere. This is the first rotation rate measurement of a massive exoplanet using direct imaging. The observations also confirm that the planet's atmosphere has layers of patchy, colorless clouds.
After years of preparatory studies, NASA is formally starting an astrophysics mission designed to help unlock the secrets of the universe -- the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). WFIRST will have a mirror the same size as Hubble's, but it will have a 100 times wider view of space.
New Hubble telescope observations suggest that a high-velocity gas cloud was launched from the outer regions of our own galaxy around 70 million years ago. Now, the cloud is on a return collision course and is expected to plow into the Milky Way's disk in about 30 million years. Astronomers believe it will ignite a spectacular burst of star formation then. Join the scientists in a live discussion about the origin and conclusions of this research during the Hubble Hangout at 3pm EST today on http://hbbl.us/g7C.
Resembling an opulent diamond tapestry, this Hubble image of Trumpler 14 located 8,000 light-years away in the Carina Nebula, shows a glittering star cluster that contains a collection of some of the brightest stars seen in our Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers have made the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster using three of NASA's Great Observatories. This multiwavelength image shows this galaxy cluster, called IDCS J1426.5+3508, in X-rays recorded by Chandra in blue, visible light observed by Hubble in green, and infrared light detected by Spitzer in red. is so far away that the light detected is from when the universe was roughly a quarter of its current age. This is the most massive galaxy cluster detected at such an early age.
Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system located within 10,000 light-years of Earth, is best known for an enormous eruption seen in the mid-19th century that hurled an amount of material at least 10 times the sun's mass into space. Still shrouded by this expanding veil of gas and dust, Eta Carinae is the only object of its kind known in our galaxy. Now a study using archival data from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes has found five similar objects in other galaxies for the first time.
Just in time for the release of the movie "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens," NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is releasing a new image of what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber.
A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery -- why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected. The findings, published in Nature, offer new insights into the wide range of planetary atmospheres in our galaxy and how planets are assembled.
Using the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, astronomers have detected a very compact and faint early galaxy that was forming 400 million years after the big bang.
Using Hubble Space Telescope images, astronomers have conducted a "cosmic archeological dig" of our Milky Way's heart, uncovering the blueprints of our galaxy's early construction phase. The researchers uncovered for the first time a population of ancient white dwarfs -- smoldering remnants of once-vibrant stars that inhabited the Milky Way's core.
Dr. Kenneth R. Sembach has been appointed director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Sembach has been deeply involved in the scientific, operational, and managerial aspects of the Hubble Space Telescope for the past 15 years. He has served as interim deputy director, Hubble mission head, and Hubble project scientist.
A team of astronomers is proposing that huge spiral patterns seen around some newborn stars, merely a few million years old, may be evidence for the presence of giant, unseen planets.
According to a new theoretical study, when our solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago only eight percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed. And, the party won't be over when the sun burns out in another 6 billion years. The bulk of those planets - 92 percent - have yet to be born. This conclusion is based on an assessment of data collected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Kepler space observatory.
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have produced new global maps of Jupiter, representing nearly back-to-back rotations of the planet on Jan. 19, 2015, that show the movements of the clouds and make it possible to determine the speeds of Jupiter's winds. The images confirm that the Great Red Spot continues to shrink and become more circular. In addition, an unusual wispy filament is seen, spanning almost the entire width of the vortex. The images are the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system's outer planets. For more visuals and information about this study, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/hubble-s-planetary-portrait-captures-new-changes-in-jupiter-s-great-red-spot. And to learn even more about Jupiter and Hubble, join the live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3:00 pm on Thurs., Oct. 15 at http://hbbl.us/y6C.
Astronomers studying images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's Very Large Telescope were surprised to uncover fast-moving, large-scale, wave-like features embedded in the vast disk of gas and dust surrounding the young, nearby star AU Microscopii. The features are unlike anything ever observed. These results will be published in the Oct. 8 issue of Nature. Learn even more about AU Mic by joining a live Hubble Hangout discussion with astronomers at 3:00 pm EDT on Thurs., Oct. 8 at http://hbbl.us/y6M.
Astronomers are comparing new images of the Veil Nebula, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in April 2015 with Hubble images taken in 1997, to study how the nebula has expanded since it was photographed over 18 years ago. The supernova that created the Veil Nebula would have been briefly visible to our very distant ancestors thousands of years ago as a bright "new star" in the northern sky. Learn even more about the Veil Nebula in a discussion with Hubble Heritage Team scientists during the live Hubble Hangout at 3pm EDT today (Thurs., Sept. 24) at http://hbbl.us/z7f .
In an intensive citizen-science-aided survey of Hubble telescope images of 2,753 young, blue star clusters in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31), astronomers have found that M31 and our own galaxy have a similar percentage of newborn stars based on mass. By nailing down what percentage of stars have a particular mass within a cluster (the Initial Mass Function), scientists can better interpret the light from distant galaxies and understand the formation history of stars in our universe.
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found that two central black holes whirling about each other, power Markarian 231 -- the closest galaxy to Earth that hosts a quasar. The finding suggests quasars, which are intense bright spots found in centers of galaxies, can be created by double-supermassive black holes that frantically orbit each other, generating tremendous amounts of energy in the process.
Several exploding stars have been found outside the cozy confines of galaxies, where most stars reside. These wayward supernovae are also weird because they exploded billions of years before their predicted detonations. Using archived observations from several telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have developed a theory for where these doomed stars come from and how they arrived at their current homes.
Combining Hubble data with observations from a suite of ground-based and space telescopes, two independent teams of astronomers have uncovered a unique process for how the universe's largest elliptical galaxies continue making stars long after their peak years of star birth.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have confirmed the existence of a Uranus-sized exoplanet orbiting far from its central star, discovered through a technique called gravitational microlensing. These results appear in two papers in The Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an immense cloud of hydrogen dispersing from a warm, Neptune-sized planet orbiting a nearby star. The enormous comet-like tail of the planet is about 50 times the size of the parent star. The findings will be published in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.
Astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope's near-infrared vision to uncover the mysterious early formative years of quasars, the brightest beacons in the universe. Hubble's sharp images unveil chaotic collisions between galaxies that gave birth to quasars by fueling supermassive central black holes. Join the live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3:00 pm EDT on Thurs., June 18, to learn even more about these dust-reddened quasars and the Hubble Space Telescope. To join, visit http://hbbl.us/z7F .
A colorful Hubble telescope image of galaxy NGC 6503 shows bright red patches of gas scattered through its spiral arms, blue regions containing newly forming stars, and dark brown dust lanes snaking across its arms and center. The galaxy lies at the edge of what some astronomers call the Local Void.
Comprehensive analysis of data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows that two of Pluto's moons, Nix and Hydra, wobble unpredictably. The results appear in the June 4 issue of the journal Nature. To learn even more, join the Hubble Hangout with Pluto scientists at 3pm EDT on Thurs., June 4 by visiting http://hbbl.us/y6E .
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered for the first time a rear-end collision between two high-speed knots of ejected matter from a supermassive black hole. This discovery was made while piecing together a time-lapse movie of a plasma jet blasted from a supermassive black hole inside galaxy 3C 264, located 260 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo.
Astronomers have spent decades trying to determine the oddball behavior of an aging star nicknamed "Nasty 1" residing in our Milky Way galaxy. Looking at the star using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers had expected to see a bipolar outflow of twin lobes of gas from the star. The astronomers were surprised, however, to find a pancake-shaped disk of gas encircling the star. The vast disk is nearly 1,000 times the diameter of our solar system.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured for the first time snapshots of fledgling white dwarf stars beginning their slow-paced, 40-million-year migration from the crowded center of an ancient star cluster to the less populated suburbs.
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the immense halo of gas enveloping the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest massive galactic neighbor, is about six times larger and 1,000 times more massive than previously measured.
In a synergy between the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, and the giant W. M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have set a new distance record to the farthest redshift-confirmed galaxy. It is so far away the light we receive left the galaxy over 13 billion years ago, and it is just arriving now. The new observations underline the very exciting discoveries that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will enable when it is launched in 2018.
NASA and ESA are celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope's silver anniversary of 25 years in space by unveiling some of nature's own fireworks - a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2.
At 1pm EDT on Fri., April 24, classrooms across the nation will be able to participate in the Hubble Space Telescope's 25th anniversary in a national "teach-in" sponsored by STScI in Baltimore, Maryland. Watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHD1pR4Ma1w . For detailed information on how to participate in the event, visit http://hubble25th.org/go/Teach-In .
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, is celebrating the extraordinary impact that the Hubble Space Telescope has had on science, culture, and society in a science symposium from April 20-23. STScI is hosting a news media telecon on Mon., April 20, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT with speakers from the symposium. The speakers will discuss select scientific topics where Hubble has made breakthroughs from the studies of our own solar system, to the detailed observations of extrasolar planets, to the deepest views of the distant universe.
Astronomers compiled a story of our Milky Way's growth by studying galaxies similar in mass to our galaxy, found in deep surveys of the universe. Stretching back more than 10 billion years, the census contains nearly 2,000 snapshots of Milky Way-like galaxies . To learn even more about this study, join Hubble scientists for a live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3pm EDT on Thurs., April 9, on Google+ at http://hbbl.us/kd3, or YouTube at http://hbbl.us/y6r .
NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) have announced the selection of the 2015 Hubble Fellows who will conduct research related to NASA's Cosmic Origins program.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a set of wispy, goblin-green objects that are the ephemeral ghosts of quasars that flickered to life and then faded. The eight unusual looped structures may offer insights into the puzzling behaviors of galaxies with energetic cores. Join Hubble scientists for a live Hubble Hangout at 3pm EDT on Thurs., April 2, to learn more. Visit http://hbbl.us/y6c .
Astronomers using observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that dark matter interacts with itself even less than previously thought. This finding narrows down the options for what this mysterious substance might be. The finding will appear in the journal Science on March 27. Join Hubble astronomers during the live Hubble Hangout at 3pm on Thurs., March 26, to learn even more about this study. Visit http://hbbl.us/98X .
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