Best Hubble Space Telescope Photos of Our Solar System

 

the hubble telescope may have given us  an insight into how distant galaxies  look for three decades now  but let's not forget that it's also been  responsible for some truly breathtaking  shots  of what's found right here in our own  backyard  our own solar system welcome to fact  nominal  and we're bringing you all the eye candy  in best solar system images ever taken  from the hubble space telescope  10. jupiter in europa this brilliant of  jupiter in europa  was taken only last year when the planet  was only 406 million miles from the  earth  that's close in cosmological terms  it brings you to the tumultuous and  turbulent atmosphere of jupiter and  great deal  as each colorful white yellow and red  ripple represents a front of the  never-ending storms that plague the  planet's surface  the big red eye is actually the  epicenter of a hurricane supercell  45 miles across and spinning clockwise  at an excess of 350 miles per hour  the iconic feature we associate with  jupiter may only last another 20 or 30  years  oh yeah and there's europa too 9.  saturn next up is saturn the most  distant planet to be seen in the starry  night sky with the naked eye  it's also officially the flattest planet  too with its polar diameter only 90  of the length of its equatorial diameter  this gas giant rotates faster than usual  with the centrifugal force  pushing the mass out towards the  planet's edges  saturn has the most extensive rings out  of any planet in our solar system  made up of ice sticking to clouds of  carbonaceous dust  even though these rings stretch out for  79 000 miles amazingly they're only 65  feet thick  which is pretty much the length of the  lane at a bowling alley  eight uranus uranus seems to be the butt  of many jokes pun intended but in truth  it's a pretty weird planet it rotates on  its side and in the opposite direction  to every other planet in our  solar system it takes the average  lifespan of a human being to make one  single trip around the sun  84 years the pale blue color comes from  the clouds of frozen water ammonia and  methane crystals  which refract the light and scatter it  back with a longer wavelength  it has the coldest temperature of any  local planet  hitting as low as minus 371.2  fahrenheit and is actually surrounded by  two extremely thin  rings that are barely visible seven the  ison comet  this image is our last look at the ison  comet as  it is about to enter its perihelion  phase where  it's closest to the sun just 730 000  miles away  it's known as a sun grazing comet and  most don't dare venture this close for  fear of being burned up in the intense  heat and radiation  sadly it was meant to pop back out from  around the other side of the sun in 2013  but like the ancient greek tale of  icarus  it flew too close the sun singeing its  wings as it broke  up in the cloud of dust and debris it  was made of near-pristine material from  the formation of the planets  but never completed its maiden voyage 6.  venus this ultraviolet light image  allows us to see for the first time  the separation of the sulfur clouds on  venus  just like it rains water on earth it  rains sulfuric acid on venus constantly  the entire surface is 100 covered from  view  it's thought that there are active  volcanoes peppering the surface but so  far  attempts at getting a camera close have  failed this is due partially to the fact  that the atmospheric pressure here  is 90 times stronger than here on earth  so probes are  crushed under the sheer weight of gas  within minutes of arriving on venus  5. lunar landing sites this is the moon  up close  over to the left is the aristarchus  crater  the brightest feature of the lunar  surface by double  it's deeper than the grand canyon and  the light that we see is actually earth  shine a reflection of a reflection of  the sun  in the middle of the image is the apollo  15 the first to ever use the lunar rover  vehicle  the crew spent 18 and a half hours down  on the moon and collected 170 pounds of  dust and rock  to take back to earth for analysis over  to the right is the apollo 17 landing  site  the first to have a crew of all  scientists without an ex-military pilot  and the longest overall time on the  moon's surface  4. linear comet this amazing image  captures the moment that the linear  comet exploded into a shower of many  comets  like a great celestial firework the  glowing fragments of rock can be seen  raining down away from the nucleus of  the main comet  eventually there was nothing left  scientists deduced that all of the ice  contained within the comet melted to  water vapor  and that even the fragments shot out  from the catastrophic failure had burned  out  to a loose swarm of dust left in its  wake  three pluto's moons back in 2005 the  hubble confirmed the presence of two  additional moons orbiting around pluto  we already knew about sharon but s 205  p1 and  s205p2 subsequently named  nyx and hydra respectively were a  complete surprise  the image clearly shows the two in an  orbit much more distant from pluto than  sharon  six years later two more tiny moons were  picked up by hubble  named sticks and cerberus and are only  four and seven miles wide  to put it into perspective most of us  travel a longer distance to work each  day  two mars back in 1997 this montage of  mars represented the first time that the  red planet was seen in full rotation  90 degrees separates each image which  haven't been color adjusted and are the  raw data  beamed back to earth from the hubble  volcanic ridges ancient seabeds  and huge mountainous ranges can all be  seen peppering the surface  up on top of the north pole the frozen  carbon dioxide polar cap can be seen  the ice here is only three feet thick  down below and off to the sides are  colorful aurorae  similar to the southern and northern  lights here on earth  these occur when ionizing radiation  breaks the bonds between gas and the  magnetic layer of an atmosphere  releasing energy in the form of light  1. comet-like asteroid p-2010a2  a rather unimaginative named hunk of  rock flying through space  was first thought to be a  run-of-the-mill comet until  the hubble took a closer look at it  there are four  spiky protrusions extended from the  central nucleus  meaning that this comet isn't circular  and round like  all the rest this x pattern is a complex  structure  that had never before been documented  and hasn't been seen  since the streaming trail of dust is a  red herring as  this is no comet tail it's likely that  this is an asteroid or more accurately  a chunk of asteroid that has been  blasted off a larger model  and sent hurdling through our solar  system the collusion caused this  comet-like asteroid to travel five times  faster than a rifle bullet  and was the first piece of evidence that  our asteroid belts are slowly being  ground up to dust  by the fragments constantly and  frequently smashing into one another