NASA is celebrating Hubble’s 35th birthday
with an assortment of breathtaking images
recently taken by the space telescope:
stretching from the planet Mars,
to spectacular star-forming regions,
to a magnificent neighboring galaxy.
The first birthday image shows the planetary nebula NGC 2899,
located about 4,500 light-years away
in the southern constellation Vela. A hot white dwarf,
possibly with companion stars, drives powerful
outflows of gas that shape the nebula’s bipolar structure.
Gaseous pillars point back toward the source of radiation
and stellar winds,
and the vivid colors come from glowing hydrogen and oxygen.
Hubble also captured a detailed face-on view of galaxy NGC 5335.
Unlike typical spiral galaxies,
it lacks well-defined arms and features a
prominent bar stretching across its center.
This bar funnels gas toward the core, fueling star formation.
Bars can appear and fade over
billions of years, and they’re found in about 30 percent of galaxies,
including our own Milky Way.
This Hubble image captures a small section of the Rosette Nebula,
a vast star-forming region 100 light-years across
and located 5,200 light-years away.
Hubble zooms in on a 4-light-year-wide slice,
revealing dark hydrogen clouds laced with dust.
These clouds are being sculpted by intense
radiation from a cluster of massive stars at the nebula’s center.
In the upper right, a young star
at the tip of a dark cloud shoots out plasma jets
that slam into surrounding gas, creating
a glowing red shock wave.
The colors in the image come from hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
The final anniversary images show two sides of Mars
from about 61 million miles away.
Ultraviolet light reveals thin water-ice clouds,
giving the red planet a frosty look.
The icy northern polar cap is entering spring. At the 10 o’clock position,
the giant volcano Olympus Mons rises above the clouds,
towering 70,000 feet high,
or 2.5 times taller than Mt. Everest.
The dark streak near center-left is Valles Marineris,
a 2,500-mile-long canyon system.
On the right, high-altitude evening clouds hug the eastern limb,
while the 1,400-mile-wide Hellas Basin lies far to the south.
Because Hubble orbits above Earth’s atmosphere, it can give us these clear
views of the many wonders in our universe.
For 35 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has
transformed our view of the universe
and deepened our understanding of our place within it.
From refining the estimated age of the cosmos
to measuring how quickly it’s expanding,
Hubble has helped answer some of astronomy’s biggest questions.
Its deep field images allow us to peer across billions of light-years,
revealing galaxies in their earliest stages:
snapshots we can compare to the Milky Way
to learn more about our own galactic history.
Hubble also continues to explore activity within
our own solar system and beyond,
capturing details of distant planets, stars, and systems
throughout the galaxy and the universe.
Its scientific capabilities are used jointly
and collaboratively with those of other telescopes
on the ground and in space,
including the James Webb Space Telescope,
the Chandra X-ray Observatory,
the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite,
the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission,
and the upcoming Roman Space Telescope,
ensuring cutting edge science and discovery.
Thanks to five astronaut servicing missions
and ongoing support from expert teams on the ground,
Hubble remains in excellent health
and is expected to deliver groundbreaking
science for years to come. Explore more about Hubble’s
discoveries at nasa.gov/hubble and follow along on social media @NASAHubble.