Hubble Space Telescope's 35th anniversary: See NASA's new out-of-this-world images
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Hubble snaps photo of dusty Magellanic cloud in Tarantula nebula
New image from the Hubble Space Telescope peers into a dusty region of space - home to some of the largest stars know to man.
During its 35 years of orbiting the Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope has transmitted endless streams of magnificent images, confirmed the existence of "dark matter," and helped track a vagabond black hole moving through the Milky Way.
To celebrate the Hubble telescope's 35th anniversary, NASA released some striking new images on Wednesday, including a bold rendition of Mars and a stunning photo of a moth-shaped nebula with a white dwarf star in the middle.
Built by Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 24, 1990. Since it orbits above the Earth, it can capture better cosmic images than telescopes on the ground.
Hubble has made more than 1.6 million observations over the course of its lifetime, NASA says. And Hubble's discoveries have spawned more than 21,000 peer-reviewed science papers.
The James Webb Space Telescope, which orbits the sun, has captured much space news attention, but it certainly hasn't put Hubble out of business.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
The Hubble telescope was designed to be the first space-based observatory, which could be serviced and upgraded while it remained in orbit.
It was named after Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who showed that other galaxies existed beyond our own and came up with a classification scheme distinguishing galaxies by shape.
About the same size as a school bus, the Hubble telescope uses three types of instruments to capture images across the universe:
Cameras: Hubble has two cameras – the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which is primarily used for visible-light imaging, according to NASA. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) views infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths for higher resolution, deeper images. The ACS was repaired and the WFC3 was installed during a May 2009 servicing mission involving five spacewalks by astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis.
Hubble has two cameras – the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which is primarily used for visible-light imaging, according to NASA. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) views infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths for higher resolution, deeper images. The ACS was repaired and the WFC3 was installed during a May 2009 servicing mission involving five spacewalks by astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis. Spectrographs: The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph is the most sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph ever, capturing light and breaking it down to assess temperature, density, chemical composition, and velocity of objects, such as stars and quasars. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, also repaired in 2009, captures many forms of light, including ultraviolet to near-infrared light.
The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph is the most sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph ever, capturing light and breaking it down to assess temperature, density, chemical composition, and velocity of objects, such as stars and quasars. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, also repaired in 2009, captures many forms of light, including ultraviolet to near-infrared light. Interferometers: The telescope has three Fine Guidance Sensors used to target and measure the relative positions and brightness of stars.
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
NASA's Hubble Tracks Alien Comet Moving At 36-Miles/Sec Towards Sun
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have captured the sharpest-ever image of comet 3I/ATLAS — an 'interstellar interloper' — revealing it to be the fastest ever comet seen so far. The comet, first spotted by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on July 1, 2025, comes from another star system. It's only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected. 36 Miles Per Second 3I/ATLAS is traveling through our solar system at a staggering 130,000 miles (209,000 kilometers) per hour — or 36 miles per second (58 kilometers per second) — the highest velocity ever recorded for a solar system visitor. It appears to be behaving like a normal solar system comet, with Hubble capturing a dust plume ejected from the sun-facing side of the comet alongside a dust tail streaming away from the nucleus. Astronomers believe this record-breaking speed is the result of countless gravitational encounters during its interstellar voyage. "It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path,' said David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, science team leader for the Hubble observations, in a press release. Largest Ever Interstellar Object Far larger than either of the other two interstellar comets found in recent years — 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019 — the arrival of 3I/ATLAS offers scientists a rare opportunity to study a visitor from another star system. However, it's proving difficult to observe. Hubble's new observations suggest the comet's icy nucleus could be as large as 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in diameter, but it may also be as small as 1,000 feet (320 meters), say the authors of a new paper published on arXiv, a platform for disseminating research, but which isn't yet peer-reviewed. It's due to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Other large telescopes have had a similar problem, including the James Webb Space Telescope, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the W.M. Keck Observatory. Where Did 3I/ATLAS Come From? The speed at which 3I/ATLAS is traveling makes observations very difficult. 'No one knows where the comet came from,' said Jewitt. 'This latest interstellar tourist is one of a previously undetected population of objects bursting onto the scene that will gradually emerge." The detection of 3I/ATLAS has been possible because of powerful sky survey capabilities, something that's about to be bolstered even further with the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It has already detected interstellar object 3I/ATLAS and may detect up to 50 more during its 10-year mission, according to a new model. "We've crossed a threshold," said Jewitt. Threat To Earth 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth — in fact, it's passing through the opposite side of the sun to where Earth currently is and will make its closest approach to the sun in October, when it will be behind the sun and be lost in its glare from Earth's point of view. It will pass relatively close to Mars. 3I/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes until September, when it will pass too close to the sun to observe, but it's expected to reappear by early December as it departs the inner solar system. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Perseid meteor shower is peaking Tuesday. Here's how to see it
It's finally time to watch one of the best meteor showers of the year: the brilliant display known as the Perseids. The Perseid meteor shower, which is known for producing dozens of bright meteors that leave long streaks in their wake, peaked at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. In previous years, it produced around 40 to 50 visible meteors per hour, but sky-gazers likely won't see as many this year, said Bill Cooke, the lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office. This is due to the fact that the Perseid shower is occurring shortly after August's full moon. The moon will be in a waning gibbous phase and at around 85% illumination, which means the light from the moon will make meteor-spotting more difficult. According to experts, you may see around 10 to 20 meteors per hour. When to watch for meteors While the peak of the Perseids happened well before sunset in the US, there are two windows of time between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning during which stargazers should aim to be outside for the best chance of glimpsing a meteor. 'Between dusk and moonrise on the evening of August 12, there's going to be a one-hour gap before the moon rises,' when you can look for Perseid activity, said Robert Lunsford, fireball report coordinator for the American Meteor Society. These meteors shoot out in all directions from the constellation Perseus, which is located in the northern sky. Lunsford noted, however, that, due to Perseus appearing low on the horizon at this time, much of the meteor activity will be blocked from view. 'Any meteors you do see at that time are going to be called Earth grazers because they can just graze the upper atmosphere,' he said. While most Perseid meteors are visible for mere milliseconds, the few earth grazers you might spot 'will be very long and will last two or three seconds,' he added. The last couple of hours before daybreak on Wednesday is the other window during which Lunsford recommends trying to see the shower. 'There'll be a bright moon up in the southern sky, but if you turn your gaze northward and look kind of toward the constellation Perseus, you can still see the brighter meteors.' Look up for planets The peak of the Perseids is occurring just after the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, and the two planets will still be close together and shining brightly. The best views will be in the eastern sky before sunrise. 'These are the two brightest planets,' Lunsford said. 'This (conjunction) happens about once a year, but it's still spectacular when you get the two brightest planets really close to each other.' Saturn will also be joining the night's celestial display in the late evening hours on Tuesday. It will appear near the moon and will rise before midnight, according to EarthSky. Upcoming meteor showers Here are the peak dates of other meteor showers anticipated in 2025, according to the American Meteor Society and EarthSky. Draconids: October 8-9 Orionids: October 22-23 Southern Taurids: November 3-4 Northern Taurids: November 8-9 Leonids: November 16-17 Geminids: December 13-14 Ursids: December 21-22 Upcoming full moons Look out for four more full moons this year, with supermoons occurring in October, November and December. Their dates are: September 7 October 6 November 5 December 4 Lunar and solar eclipses in 2025 Two eclipse events will take place as summer draws to a close. A total lunar eclipse will be visible in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, parts of eastern South America, Alaska and Antarctica on September 7 and 8, according to Time and Date. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly into Earth's shadow as the sun, Earth and the moon line up. This causes the moon to appear darker or dimmed. When the moon sits in the darkest part of Earth's shadow, the sun's rays peek out from behind Earth and the light refracts, giving the moon a reddish hue, according to London's Natural History Museum. Some people call the result a 'blood moon.' Two weeks later, on September 21, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Australia, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Antarctica. Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves between the sun and Earth. In the case of a partial solar eclipse, the moon does not fully block out the sun. It creates a crescent — as if the moon took a bite out of the sun. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
This comet is traveling 100x faster than a bullet. NASA still managed to photograph it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The fastest-moving objects are often the most challenging subjects to photograph – which means NASA scientists had a challenge ahead of them when the ATLAS comet warning system flagged the fastest solar system visitor yet. The Hubble Space Telescope has managed to capture the sharpest ever photograph of the comet known as 3I/ATLAS as it travels at 130,000 miles per hour / 209,215 kph. The 3I/ATLAS, which was first spotted on July 1, has the fastest velocity of any solar system visitor to date, NASA says. The comet's 130,000 mph speed is nearly 100 times the speed of some bullets. The comet's speed suggests that 3I/ATLAS may have originated from a very distant, developing planetary system, which means the comet could be a space fossil with clues about the universe's history. The challenge, of course, was how to photograph something moving 100 times the speed of some bullets and still get a sharp enough photograph that scientists could infer some data from the image. NASA put the Hubble Space Telescope up to the task, using the orbiting telescope's onboard WFC3 charge-coupled camera. The researchers used a single gyroscope to allow the camera to follow the movement of the comet, creating a sharper, more detailed image. The stars in the background of the image are streaked because the camera was moving in order to follow the quick-moving comet, much like the panning technique blurs the background of photos taken following fast action on Earth. The resulting photograph is giving researchers a wealth of different information about the speedy solar system visitor. Researchers now estimate that the comet's nucleus is between 1,000 feet (320 m) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in diameter. The photograph also shows the dust ejecting from the comet on the side that the sun is heating up. The comet's rate of dust loss indicates the comet may have originated 300 million miles from the sun, researchers estimate. 'No one knows where the comet came from,' said David Jewitt, the science team leader for the Hubble observations. 'It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.' The 3I/ATLAS comet was first discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) at the beginning of July 2025. While the comet isn't Earth-bound, its speed indicates the comet could be billions of years old. Researchers will continue to study the comet until it passes too close to the sun to observe sometime in September, though it's expected to be visible again on the other side of the sun around December. You may also like Take a look at the best cameras for astrophotography or the best lenses for astrophotography. Solve the daily Crossword
