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In April 2018, the Hubble Space Telescope premiered this image
of the Lagoon Nebula
The image honors Hubble's 28th year in orbit.
Even after 27 years, Hubble continues to further humanity's
knowledge of the universe
Here are several science achievements from Hubble's
latest year of observations.
Within our own solar system, Hubble observed Neptune's
shrinking storm,
an asteroid that slit in half 5000 years ago and is sprouting
a comet tail,
and the farthest active inbound comet, nicknamed "K2."
Exploring beyond our solar system,
Hubble astronomers discovered many new characteristics of
planets around other stars,
from finding that water is common in these "exoplanet"
atmospheres,
to finding different types of atmospheres among large planets
called "hot Jupiters."
Hubble observed four Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of
the star TRAPPIST-1.
The observations showed no signs of thick, puffy atmospheres on
at least three planets,
increasing the likelihood that these are rocky, terrestrial
planets.
Hubble observed visible light from the first identified source
of gravitational waves, created when two neutron stars collided.
With Hubble data, astronomers used graviational lensing to
determine the mass of a white dwarf star.
Hubble observed a massive dying star being reborn as a black
hole.
Hubble witnessed light from a supernova explosion reflecting
off a dust cloud, which created this "light echo."
Astronomers using Hubble refined the Hubble constant.
This revealed that the expansion of our universe is accelerating
even faster than expected.
And Hubble premiered a 360-degree fly-through of the
Orion Nebula...
so that those of us down on Earth can imagine flying amongst
the stars.
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For more information about Hubble's scientific discoveries
www.nasa.gov/hubble @NASAHubble