The Best Pictures Ever Taken by The Hubble Telescope

 

the humble hubble telescope is something  that many take for granted  it's been beaming amazingly detailed and  altogether otherworldly images to the  earth for  three decades now helping to  fundamentally change our understanding  of the universe and the celestial bodies  in it  the machine itself is a marvel of modern  engineering it was specifically designed  to be up in orbit for the long haul  and its uniqueness allows it to be  repaired and upgraded by astronauts with  technological advancements  making it one of the longest lived and  most valuable space observatories  welcome to fact nominal today we're  celebrating 30 years of amazing space  photos  in the hubble telescope's best picture  so far  the cosmic reef ngc 2014 and  ngc 2020 the blue ring is the glowing  oxygen of the hgc  2020 nebula a residual shroud formed by  the excessive overflow  from a massive insanely hot star sitting  at the center  all on its lonesome the red ngc 2014  is the complete opposite a red garden of  reflective dust and gas  that acts as a nursery for newborn stars  lagoon nebula herschel 36  the lagoon nebula has herschel 36 at its  center  a star 200 000 times brighter than our  sun  the violent emission of ultraviolet  radiation causes the stellar wind to act  like a tropical storm  whipping the dust and gas around it into  ripples and ridges  lightsaber herbigharro24  a young star with an hh-24 is blazing  hot  and although it's obscured by a jedi's  robe shaped cloud of dust  it shoots out twin jets of superheated  gas  looking almost exactly like a  double-ended lightsaber  pillars of creation eagle nebula  the pillars of creation are a five light  year tall structure resembling an  outstretched hat  they are composed of cold hydrogen gas  laced with just the right amount of dust  making them not only breathtakingly  beautiful but a super producer of baby  stars  saturn just a stunning picture of saturn  nothing fancy sometimes a picture says a  thousand words  milky way bulge how many stars can you  fit in one frame  the milky way is a crowded galaxy with  an unusually high density of stars of  all different sizes colors and ages  the image itself is a composite of  visible lights overlaid with  near-infrared light  bubble nebula ngc 7635  a robust star 45 times the size of our  sun  is blowing a bubble using its 4 million  mile per hour solar wind  pushing cold interstellar gas out in  front of it like a snow plow  forming the seven light-year diameter  bubble nebula  the whirlpool galaxy ngc 5194  the radiating arms of the whirlpool  galaxy are a perfect example of a  typical spiral structure  the older stars at the core give off a  golden light with younger white and blue  stars in the tendrils  superheating the gas around it giving  off a more crimson hue  jupiter this simple image of jupiter  shows the great red spot in awesome  detail  it's actually a super intense storm that  is 1.3 times as wide as the earth and  has been raging  for at least 400 years  abell 370. no those bright lights aren't  stars  they're galaxies several hundred in fact  of various shapes sizes and colors all  pulled together to form the abell 370  cluster  thanks to our old friend gravity the  enormous gravitational force acting on  the cluster  is enough to magnify and distort light  the crab nebula what happens when a star  experiences  an especially violent death the crab  nebula  the neutron star at its center pulses 30  times a second  emitting a pale blue light as electrons  are whipped around at near the speed of  light  by the rapidly changing magnetic fields  the crab nebula spectrograph arts  isn't all about realism and sometimes  beauty can be abstract  this image shows the hourglass shaped  southern aspect of the crab nebula  separated into specific wavelengths of  light sorted by the emissions from  hydrogen  sulfur oxygen and nitrogen westerlund 2  the westerland 2 cluster is a woven  tapestry of over 3 000 stars  shining together like exquisitely  colored fireworks in the night sky  it's a hotbed of the gas and dust  required to generate a rich population  of newly formed stars  the orion nebula orion's belt can be  seen in the night sky from the surface  of the earth  an east to west orientation helping  sailors in the northern hemisphere  navigate  on the high seas these super hot super  bright stars  are surrounded by a whole nebula of  younger stars  ada carinae no it's not a baboon's  rear-end  it's edicarina a supermassive star with  a bad temper  it's prone to violent outbursts ejecting  a huge amount of core material  forming two bright magnesium-rich clouds  sombrero galaxy m104  sometimes naming celestial bodies is  dead easy  the obviously named sombrero galaxy  features a bright center  with an unusually large central bulge  the dark dust along its circular  edge completes the look tequila shots  all around  the veil nebula the veil nebula is  arguably the most well-known supernova  remnant  situated in the jagnus constellation  it's unique in that it has delicately  folded filamentary structures  formed by wisps of gas the crumbled bed  sheet appearance is caused by the  residual force of the dead star's  stellar wind ngc  602 small magellanic cloud  has the ngc 602 cluster of newly formed  ferociously hot blue stars hungrily  munch material around them  they are creating a black void in their  section of the small magellanic cloud  the high energy radiation emitted by the  clumps of younglings is eroding the  surrounding cloud like a dental decay  cavity  in tooth and now mars and the moon  a time-lapsed composite image taken by  hubble showed the small moon phobos  dancing around mars as it made its way  through its orbit around the planet  thirteen separate exposures were taken  over a 22-minute period  filming one of the smallest moons in our  system just 16.5  by 13.5 by 11 miles shaped a bit like a  football  horsehead nebula the horsehead nebula is  nestled within the orion constellation  and is a fan favorite with both amateur  and professional astronomers  it has shadowy translucent appearance  that resembles a ghostly spectre when  viewed in infrared  like it is in this image  ngc 3603 located over 20 000 light years  away  is a high concentration of supermassive  stars that form the ngc  3603 cluster in the carina constellation  we can see them so clearly as they have  completely exhausted  all the nearby gas and dust then pushing  away the remainder with strong bursts of  uv radiation  and stripping stellar winds  cats eye nebula eye of the tiger or  penetrating gaze of the sorcerer sauron  from jrr tolkien's lord of the rings  the kadzai nebula was one of the first  nebulae to be discovered  and to date it still has one of the most  complex structures  consisting of concentric shells of  different gases and jets of high speed  plasma  causing knots and swirling patterns  through them  hubble ultra deep field image it may not  look like it but there are over 10 000  galaxies contained in this  one image it's the culmination of  separate exposures taken over a decade  between 2002 and 2012  combining the visible light infrared and  ultraviolet spectrums  some of the galaxies shown are old able  to be aged to within 100 million years  after the big bang  the butterfly nebula the ornate wings of  the butterfly nebula are  actually boiling cauldrons of  superheated gas at more than 36  000 degrees fahrenheit and ripping  through space at more than  600 000 miles per hour the delicate  looking gas would complete the trip from  earth to the moon  in just 24 minutes  ngc 1300 unusual for a spiral-shaped  galaxy  ngc 1300 has a huge barrel shaped  nucleus  with just two short stumpy arms of  younger stars extending out from its  oversized center  it's unsure why there are so many older  yellow stars in the thick bulging bar  it's thought that a smaller spiral  galaxy of only yellow stars exists at  the center  or a galaxy within a galaxy  ngc 2174 monkey head nebula  this is an infrared light portrait of  the birthing ground of young stars  within the monkey head nebula  dubbed ngc 2174  the dark brown clouds of dust  intermingle with the pale blue gas  as both slow down as they meet causing a  helical rotation  that acts as the catalyst of star  formation  antennae galaxies the antenna galaxies  are a prime example of what happens  when an orbiting pair of young galaxies  eventually collide  and are absorbed by one another this  process has been going on for over a  hundred million years  and before the merger is complete  billions of stars will have been formed  to make up the new larger galaxy  v838 monoceratus  the hubble was able to capture the  expanding light echo from the supergiant  star  monoceratus over the course of several  years showing how the billowing spirals  of dust were thrust  through trillions of miles of  interstellar space as the force of the  star propelled the dull clouds  arp-273 the spiral structure of arp-273  is highly irregular and lopsided forming  a row shape  this is due to the fact that a very  small companion galaxy below it is  exerting gravitational force on the  trailing arms  eventually the larger arp-273 will  absorb its tiny neighbor  carina nebula the center of the carina  nebula is a storming tempest  a 50 light-year-wide maelstrom of star  birth and star death  punctuating its fabric of dust and gas  it's a stitched together mosaic formed  by  48 separate hubble high definition  images  painting a broader picture of how stars  form within such a tumultuous  environment