List of Hubble Space Telescope anniversary images

Last updated

This is a list of images released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's anniversaries. They celebrate its "birthday" when it was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, by the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery. [1]

Contents

15th (2005)

The 15th anniversary, in 2005, was celebrated with a collection of images of M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), and also with a section of the Eagle nebula. [2] The 15th anniversary included a collection of other content including, in multiple languages, the video release, Hubble — 15 Years of Discovery. [3]

15th anniversary image - 2005 - M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, including NGC 5194 and NGC 5195. Messier51 sRGB.jpg
15th anniversary image - 2005 – M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, including NGC 5194 and NGC 5195.

17th (2007)

The 17th-anniversary celebration featured a panorama of part of the Carina Nebula, and a collection of images selected from that area. [4]

In its 17 years of exploring the heavens, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made nearly 800,000 observations and snapped nearly 500,000 images of more than 25,000 celestial objects. Hubble does not travel to stars, planets and galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. In its 17-year lifetime, the telescope has made nearly 100,000 trips around our planet.

17th Anniversary Press release [4]
17th anniversary image - 2007 - part of the Carina Nebula including the star system WR 22 and open cluster (stars) Trumpler 14 Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula.jpg
17th anniversary image - 2007 – part of the Carina Nebula including the star system WR 22 and open cluster (stars) Trumpler 14

18th (2008)

59 images of merging galaxies were released for the 18th anniversary on 24 April 2008. [5]

19th (2009)

19th anniversary image - 2009 - Arp 194 Hs-2009-18-a-full jpg.jpg
19th anniversary image - 2009 – Arp 194

20th (2010)

20th anniversary image - 2010 - 'Mystic Mountain' in Carina nebula HH 901 and HH 902 in the Carina nebula (captured by the Hubble Space Telescope).jpg
20th anniversary image - 2010 – 'Mystic Mountain' in Carina nebula

21st (2011)

21st anniversary image - 2011 - Arp 273, which is UGC 1810 and UGC 1813, called a "rose" of galaxies in this release. A Rose Made of Galaxies Highlights Hubble's 21st Anniversary jpg.jpg
21st anniversary image - 2011 – Arp 273, which is UGC 1810 and UGC 1813, called a "rose" of galaxies in this release.

22nd (2012)

22nd anniversary image - 2012 - 30 Doradus in Tarantula Nebula 30 Doradus, Tarantula Nebula.jpg
22nd anniversary image - 2012 – 30 Doradus in Tarantula Nebula

23rd (2013)

23rd anniversary image - 2013 - Horsehead nebula in infrared light Hubble Sees a Horsehead of a Different Color.jpg
23rd anniversary image - 2013 – Horsehead nebula in infrared light

24th (2014)

24th anniversary image - 2014 - A set of Infrared images of Monkey Head Nebula incl. NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252 Hubble Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Infrared Image of Nearby Star Factory (13225104285).jpg
24th anniversary image - 2014 – A set of Infrared images of Monkey Head Nebula incl. NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252

25th (2015)

25th anniversary image - April 2015 - Westerlund 2 NASA Unveils Celestial Fireworks as Official Hubble 25th Anniversary Image.jpg
25th anniversary image - April 2015 – Westerlund 2

26th (2016)

26th anniversary image - April 2016 - the Bubble nebula The Bubble Nebula - NGC 7635 - Heic1608a.jpg
26th anniversary image - April 2016 – the Bubble nebula

27th (2017)

27th anniversary image - April 2017 - Interacting galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 NGC 4298 and NGC 4302 - Heic1709a.jpg
27th anniversary image - April 2017 – Interacting galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298

28th (2018)

28th anniversary image - April 2018 - A portion of the Lagoon nebula Hubble's 28th birthday picture The Lagoon Nebula.jpg
28th anniversary image - April 2018 – A portion of the Lagoon nebula

29th (2019)

In April 2019, a special celebration image of the Southern Crab Nebula (aka Hen 2-104) was released. [15] This nebula is located in the Constellation Centaurus. [15]

29th anniversary image - April 2019 - The southern Crab nebula The Crab of the Southern Sky Hen 2-104.tif
29th anniversary image - April 2019 – The southern Crab nebula

30th (2020)

30th anniversary image - April 2020 - The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. NGC 2014, NGC 2020 - HST - Heic2007a.jpg
30th anniversary image - April 2020 – The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

31st (2021)

31st anniversary image - April 2021 - The Image shows AG Carinae waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. A magnificent view of AG Carinae.jpg
31st anniversary image - April 2021 – The Image shows AG Carinae waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction.

32nd (2022)

32nd anniversary image - April 2022 - The Image shows an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called The Hickson Compact Group 40. Three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler. Hickson Compact Group 40 - Flickr - geckzilla.png
32nd anniversary image - April 2022 – The Image shows an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called The Hickson Compact Group 40. Three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.

33rd (2023)

33rd anniversary image - April 2023 - This image shows nearby star-forming region, NGC 1333. Hubble 33rd anniversary NGC 1333.jpg
33rd anniversary image - April 2023 - This image shows nearby star-forming region, NGC 1333.


See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubble Space Telescope</span> NASA/ESA space telescope launched in 1990

The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galaxy cluster</span> Structure made up of a gravitationally-bound aggregation of hundreds of galaxies

A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-largest known gravitationally bound structures in the universe after some superclusters (of which only one, the Shapley Supercluster, is known to be bound). They were believed to be the largest known structures in the universe until the 1980s, when superclusters were discovered. One of the key features of clusters is the intracluster medium (ICM). The ICM consists of heated gas between the galaxies and has a peak temperature between 2–15 keV that is dependent on the total mass of the cluster. Galaxy clusters should not be confused with galactic clusters (also known as open clusters), which are star clusters within galaxies, or with globular clusters, which typically orbit galaxies. Small aggregates of galaxies are referred to as galaxy groups rather than clusters of galaxies. The galaxy groups and clusters can themselves cluster together to form superclusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph</span> Instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) is a spectrograph, also with a camera mode, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Aerospace engineer Bruce Woodgate of the Goddard Space Flight Center was the principal investigator and creator of the STIS. It operated continuously from 1997 until a power supply failure in August 2004. After repairs, it began operating again in 2009. The spectrograph has made many important observations, including the first spectrum of the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet, HD 209458b.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2</span>

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is a camera formerly installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. The camera was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is roughly the size of a baby grand piano. It was installed by servicing mission 1 (STS-61) in 1993, replacing the telescope's original Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC). WFPC2 was used to image the Hubble Deep Field in 1995, the Engraved Hourglass Nebula and Egg Nebula in 1996, and the Hubble Deep Field South in 1998. During STS-125, WFPC2 was removed and replaced with the Wide Field Camera 3 as part of the mission's first spacewalk on May 14, 2009. After returning to Earth, the camera was displayed briefly at the National Air and Space Museum and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before returning to its final home at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carina Nebula</span> Interstellar clouds in the constellation Carina

The Carina Nebula or Eta Carinae Nebula is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The nebula is approximately 8,500 light-years (2,600 pc) from Earth.

The Hubble Heritage Project was founded in 1998 by Keith Noll, Howard Bond, Forrest Hamilton, Anne Kinney, and Zoltan Levay at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Until its end in 2016, the Hubble Heritage Project released, on an almost monthly basis, pictures of celestial objects like planets, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FITS Liberator</span> Software program

The ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator is a free software program for processing and editing astronomical data in the FITS format to reproduce images of the universe. Version 3 and later are standalone programs; earlier versions were plugins for Adobe Photoshop. FITS Liberator is free software released under the BSD-3 license. The engine behind the FITS Liberator is NASA's CFITSIO library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Crab Nebula</span> Planetary nebula in the constellation Centaurus

The Southern Crab Nebula is a nebula in the constellation Centaurus. The nebula is several thousand light years from Earth, and its central star is a symbiotic Mira variable - white dwarf pair. It is named for its resemblance to the Crab Nebula, which is in the northern sky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2363</span> H II region in the constellation Camelopardalis

NGC 2363 is a star-forming region in the Magellanic galaxy NGC 2366 which is located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It contains NGC 2363-V1, a luminous blue variable star which is 6,300,000 times more luminous than the Sun and one of the most luminous stars known. It can be seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image as the bright isolated star in the dark void on the left of the nebula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey</span> Astronomical survey that combines observations from 3 great NASA observatories

The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or GOODS, is an astronomical survey combining deep observations from three of NASA's Great Observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, along with data from other space-based telescopes, such as XMM Newton, and some of the world's most powerful ground-based telescopes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayall's Object</span> Two colliding galaxies in the constellation of Ursa Major

Mayall's Object is the result of two colliding galaxies located 500 million light years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered by American astronomer Nicholas U. Mayall of the Lick Observatory on 13 March 1940, using the Crossley reflector. When first discovered, Mayall's Object was described as a peculiar nebula, shaped like a question mark. Originally theorized to represent a galaxy reacting with the intergalactic medium, it is now thought to represent the collision of two galaxies, resulting in a new object consisting of a ring-shaped galaxy with a tail emerging from it. It is thought that the collision between the two galaxies created a shockwave that initially drew matter into the center which then formed the ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 370</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus

Abell 370 is a galaxy cluster located nearly 5 billion light-years away from the Earth, in the constellation Cetus. Its core is made up of several hundred galaxies. It was catalogued by George Abell, and is the most distant of the clusters he catalogued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 2744</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Sculptor

Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, is a giant galaxy cluster resulting from the simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters that took place over a span of 350 million years, and is located approximately 4 billion light years from Earth. The galaxies in the cluster make up less than five percent of its mass. The gas is so hot that it shines only in X-rays. Dark matter makes up around 75 percent of the cluster's mass.

<i>Mystic Mountain</i> Cosmic nebula

Mystic Mountain is a photograph and a term for a region in the Carina Nebula imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The view was captured by the then-new Wide Field Camera 3, though the region was also viewed by the previous generation instrument. The new view celebrated the telescope's 20th anniversary of being in space in 2010. Mystic Mountain contains multiple Herbig–Haro objects where nascent stars are firing off jets of gas which interact with surrounding clouds of gas and dust. This region is about 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The pillar measures around three light-years in height. The name was influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fine Guidance Sensor (HST)</span> Hubble Space Telescope instrument system

Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) for the Hubble Space Telescope is a system of three instruments used for pointing the telescope in space, and also for astrometry and its related sciences. To enable aiming the telescope at a specific spot in the sky, each FGS combines optics and electronics. There are three Hubble FGS, and they have been upgraded over the lifetime of the telescope by crewed Space Shuttle missions. The instruments can support pointing of 2 milli-arc seconds. The three FGS are part of the Hubble Space Telescope's Pointing Control System, aka PCS. The FGS function in combination with the Hubble main computer and gyroscopes, with the FGS providing data to the computer as sensors which enables the HST to track astronomical targets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PGC 44691</span> Spiral galaxy in constellation Coma Berenices

PGC 44691 is a spiral galaxy located about 350 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It belongs to a galaxy cluster known as the Coma Cluster. In 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope observed PGC 44691 and the nearby elliptical galaxy NGC 4881 to infer the distance to the Coma Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2936</span> Interacting spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra

NGC 2936 is an interacting spiral galaxy located at a distance of 326 million light years, in the constellation Hydra. NGC 2936 is interacting with elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, located just beneath it. They were both discovered by Albert Marth on Mar 3, 1864. To some astronomers, the galaxy looks like a penguin or a porpoise. NGC 2936, NGC 2937, and PGC 1237172 are included in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 142 in the category "Galaxy triplet".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubble Legacy Field</span> Image by Hubble Space Telescope of a small region of space containing ~265,000 galaxies

The Hubble Legacy Field is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 265,000 galaxies. The original release was composed of Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a 16-year period. Looking back approximately 13 billion years it has been used to search for galaxies that existed at that time. The image was taken in a section of the sky with a low density of bright stars in the near-field, allowing much better viewing of dimmer, more distant objects. It builds on the data collected for the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey.

Touch the Invisible Sky is a 60-page tactile astronomy book written by astronomy educator Noreen Grice, and astronomers Simon Steel and Doris Daou, and was published in 2007 by Ozone publishing. The book contains colour images alongside Braille and large print descriptions of celestial objects, and colour photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope, amongst others, which are over-laid with TechnoBraille, allowing visually impaired readers to feel the images. The images featured include nebulae, stars, galaxies and some of the telescopes used to photograph the celestial objects. The images span a range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum, with a variety of textures and shapes used to convey the characteristics of the objects. The objects featured include our own Sun, the star Eta Carinae, The Crab Nebula, and Kepler's Supernova.

References

  1. "Hubble Sees a Horsehead of a Different Color | NASA". nasa.gov. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  2. 1 2 "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble celebrates 15th anniversary with spectacular new images (25 April 2005) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  3. "ESA/Hubble".
  4. 1 2 "Hubble's 17th anniversary - extreme star birth in the Carina Nebula".
  5. "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Cosmic Collisions Galore! (04/24/2008) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  6. "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble Celebrates Its 19th Anniversary with a "Fountain of Youth" (04/21/2009) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  7. "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Starry-Eyed Hubble Celebrates 20 Years of Awe and Discovery (04/22/2010) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  8. "NASA - NASA's Hubble Celebrates 21st Anniversary with 'Rose' of Galaxies". nasa.gov. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  9. 1 2 "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble's 22nd Anniversary Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region (04/17/2012) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  10. Northon, Karen (2014-03-17). "Hubble Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Infrared Image of Nearby Star Factory". NASA. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  11. "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 25 Years of Unveiling the Universe (04/23/2015) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  12. "Hubble captures birthday bubble | ESA/Hubble". spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  13. "Hubble celebrates 27 years with two close friends". www.spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  14. "Hubble's 28th birthday picture: The Lagoon Nebula". European Space Agency. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  15. 1 2 "Hubble Celebrates 29th Anniversary with the Southern Crab Nebula". 18 April 2019.
  16. "The Crab of the Southern Sky". space telescope.orgI. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  17. Belleville, Michelle (2019-12-19). "Hubble's 30th Anniversary". NASA. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
  18. Jenner, Lynn (2021-04-23). "Hubble Captures Giant Star on the Edge of Destruction". NASA. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
  19. Gianopoulos, Andrea (2022-04-19). "Celebrating Hubble's 32nd Birthday with an Eclectic Galaxy Grouping". NASA. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  20. "Hubble celebrates its 33rd anniversary with NGC 1333". ESA. 2023-04-21.