The Hubble Space Telescope is easily the most famous of NASA’s Great Observatories program. Though the telescope had a troubled start, a much-publicized repair mission corrected its vision problems and paved the way for it to produce some of the most stunning images ever recorded. A large number of images have been assembled at the Hubble Heritage Image Gallery for viewing, and Ars has selected thirty of the nicest for presentation below.
This image, which captures the spiral galaxy M-106, is a composite of data obtained by Hubble and observatories. M-106 is between 22 and 25 million light years from Earth.
This image, which captures the spiral galaxy M-106, is a composite of data obtained by Hubble and observatories. M-106 is between 22 and 25 million light years from Earth.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Like many deep space images, this one depicts phenomena invisible to the human eye. Here, the galaxy Hercules A (about 2.1 billion light years from Earth) shoots million-light-years-long streamers of high energy plasma. The plasma is only visible at radio wavelengths. This image is a composite of Hubble observations and data from the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
Like many deep space images, this one depicts phenomena invisible to the human eye. Here, the galaxy Hercules A (about 2.1 billion light years from Earth) shoots million-light-years-long streamers of high energy plasma. The plasma is only visible at radio wavelengths. This image is a composite of Hubble observations and data from the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Herbig Haro 110 is one of a class of objects that are commonly observed near stars in the process of forming. HH 110, located about 1,300 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, has a gas tail stretching more than a thousand times our solar system’s diameter.
Herbig Haro 110 is one of a class of objects that are commonly observed near stars in the process of forming. HH 110, located about 1,300 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, has a gas tail stretching more than a thousand times our solar system’s diameter.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team)
Like many deep space images, this one depicts phenomena invisible to the human eye. Here, the galaxy Hercules A (about 2.1 billion light years from Earth) shoots million-light-years-long streamers of high energy plasma. The plasma is only visible at radio wavelengths. This image is a composite of Hubble observations and data from the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Herbig Haro 110 is one of a class of objects that are commonly observed near stars in the process of forming. HH 110, located about 1,300 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, has a gas tail stretching more than a thousand times our solar system’s diameter.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team)
Though it appears as if these two galaxies are passing through each other, one’s just closer to Earth than the other. NGC 3314a and b are 117 million and 140 million light years from Earth, respectively, and are aligned so that they look to be pinwheeling through each other.
The Tarantula Nebula is lit up with the extreme brightness of new stars.
The Hubble Deep Field is an area of space that has been imaged many times; this latest version was taken with a combination of many instruments and shows more detail than ever before.
NGC 1864 is a globular cluster, a large, spherical collection of stars bound together by gravity. Far smaller than galaxies but still incredibly large, globular clusters are relatively common. This particular one is only 160,000 light years from Earth.
Centaurus A, an elliptical galaxy more than ten million light years from Earth, is shown in exquisite detail in this “panchromatic” image. The picture includes information stretching from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared, represented as different colors in the visible spectrum.
The bar galaxy NGC 4214, ten million light years from Earth, is full of newly formed or forming stars, all birthed in collapsing gas clouds.
More than three hundred million light years from Earth lies the interacting galaxies known as Arp 273. The structure they form is composed of the large spiral galaxy UGC 1810, with a smaller companion called UGC 1813 hanging close by. UGC 1813’s gravitational pull warps its larger neighbor and gives Arp 273 a flower-like appearance when viewed from Earth’s perspective.
Looking a lot like the ending scene of The Empire Strikes Back, the spiral galaxy NGC 2841 spins majestically around its axis.
SNR 0509 is a supernova remnant, the corpse of a star that exploded. This 23-light year-wide sphere is about 160,000 light years from Earth, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This is a composite image made up of different observations of the Carina Nebula,. The pillar-like structures are a full light year tall.
It’s not an artifact or a lens flare—the Red Rectangle Nebula‘s unique shape is caused by the long gas jets pumping out its central binary star. The jets, coupled with the object’s orientation relative to Earth, yields its unusual shape.
The Tarantula Nebula (which we’ve already visited once in this slide show) is an active place, cosmologically speaking. This picture shows a 100-light-year-wide close-up of a stellar nursery within it.
Detailed view of one edge of NGC 3324, a bright feature in the southern sky.
Unlike the optical trick that appears to merge NGC 3314a and b, Arp 148 actually is composed of two colliding galaxies. This catastrophic mash-up is located 500 million light years from Earth; the two interacting galaxies have oscillated into their current ring-and-tail shape.
This image shows a “light echo” around V838 Monocerotis, which briefly became one of the brightest stars in the sky in 2002. The cause of the sudden burst of brightness is not known.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a (relatively) small companion galaxy to the Milky Way. The image here shows a star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud known as N 180B.
NGC 8566 is a spiral galaxy about 50 million light years from Earth. Seen edge-on, its shape gives rise to its common name, the Spindle Galaxy.
Deep detail of the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest objects of its type. The Orion Nebula is easily visible to the naked eye.
This is the supernova remnant N 63A, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The exploding star that birthed this expanding cloud has long since died, but the wavefront continues to clear out the surrounding space like a cosmic broom.
The somewhat hat-like shape and prominent disc of NGC 4594 has led astronomers to name it the Sombrero galaxy. Not visible is the galaxy’s flag, which can be raised to request additional sopapillas.
The rippling shape of the Egg Nebula is shown here in false color. The Egg Nebula is a protoplanetary nebula, a short-lived and very hot stage of a star’s early evolution.
Close-in detail of the Dumbbell Nebula, in the constellation Vulpecula, about 1,200 light years from Earth. The image shows some of the “knots” in the nebula caused by the interaction of gasses with different temperatures and charges. Each knot can be tens of billions of miles in diameter, larger than the distance from the Sun to Pluto.
Shown here is a reflection nebula near the star Merope, one of the members of the Pleiades. This image shows the passage of Merope through a cloud of dust.
IC 148, the Spirograph Nebula, is a red giant star going through its death throes. It is about 2000 light years from Earth.
One more visit to the Tarantula Nebula, this time to Hodge 301, a major cluster of stars about 170,000 light years from Earth.
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