On Monday (April 29), NASA restored the Hubble Space Telescope to full operation, returning it to its scientific activities after the spacecraft spent a week in safe mode. The celebratory mood was dampened somewhat, however, because NASA’s exoplanet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), remains in limbo. Ironically, TESS also stopped collecting science data […]
NASA has paused science activities for the Hubble Space Telescope after one of its three gyroscopes sent faulty readings back to Earth. The space telescope, which has been delivering stunning views of the cosmos since its launch in 1990, was placed into safe mode on Tuesday (April 23) while it awaits further instructions from the […]
To write that the Hubble Space Telescope is legendary would be an understatement. In the 34 years this telescope has been in orbit, it has produced breathtaking images of the cosmos. One that sticks out, for instance, is the iconic Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, aka the deepest visible-light view of our universe ever created. Thanks to […]
The dotted white streak cutting across this photo of a faraway galaxy might seem like a nuisance for astronomers, but it’s actually the mark of a previously undiscovered asteroid. The image, snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope from its decades-long perch in low Earth orbit, is one of many that have been photobombed by asteroids […]
In December 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope completed its largest program since launching in 1990. With this program, the telescope made observations of 500 individual stars over three years — and scientists are now ready to dive into this cosmic Easter egg of data. The comprehensive Hubble Telescope survey is called the Ultraviolet Legacy Library […]
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a powerful jet erupting from a natal envelope of gas and dust that represents a newly born star announcing itself to the cosmos. Hubble spotted the infant star slicing its way out of the nebula that birthed it when it zoomed in on the youthful multi-star system FS Tau. […]
You have got to feel for brown dwarfs. Not only has their failure to ignite like normal stars earned them an unfortunate nickname — failed stars — but new findings from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed they can’t even hold a relationship together. Brown dwarfs are celestial objects that form when giant clouds of […]
The gas giant Jupiter steals the show in these two new portraits of the planet’s opposing faces, showing the swirling storms and tumultuous cloud bands blown by winds raging at hundreds of miles per hour. The Hubble Space Telescope took these images on Jan. 5-6, 2024. Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours, Hubble was able […]
What was little more than a speck of light for the Hubble Space Telescope has been revealed as one of the oldest galaxies ever discovered — and the finding owes itself to none other than Hubble’s younger sibling: The James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope international “Glass” Collaboration made detailed observations of […]
The Hubble Space Telescope has stepped on the tails of 12 interacting galaxies and found them to be studded with the shining diamonds of young star clusters —scientists compare the phenomena to cosmic “strings of pearls.” When spiral galaxies interact, either through direct collision or close encounter, their spiral arms unravel. The gravitational force that […]
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has zoomed in on one side of a cosmic tug-of-war that will rage between two galaxies for tens of millions of years. Frustratingly, this is one competition in which a clear winner may never emerge, as the two galaxies could well be drawn together to merge into one at the end […]
A stunning new Hubble Space Telescope image shows a huge ‘bridge of stars’ extending from one of the galaxies in a galactic grouping to another. The image focuses on the galaxy Arp 295a, from which the 250,000 light-year-long streamer of stars is stretching, as it is seen edge-on by Hubble and surrounded by a milky-colored […]