Kemanî

Happy 30th birthday, Hubble Space Telescope!

Named in honour of Dr. Edwin Hubble and launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was the first major optical telescope to be placed in space. Its view of the universe is uninterrupted by the clouds, atmosphere, and light pollution that interfere with our observations from Earth.

Edwin Hubble built on the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt to prove that the Andromeda galaxy was not part of the Milky Way and confirm the expansion of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope captures images of galaxies and nebulae across the universe (to within a certain distance):

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 7541, which has an unusually high rate of star formation.

Spiral galaxy NGC 4258, which has additional “arms” that glow in X-ray and optical light.

A closeup of a handful of stars from galaxy NGC 1333, which contains around 300 billion stars.

NGC 3169. In this case, the galaxy is partially obscured by the large amounts of dust in its spiral (the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s planned successor, will be able to see past this dust using infrared observation).

The Southern Crab Nebula.

A supernova remnant.

Let’s not forget the famous Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, taken when Hubble focused on a seemingly empty patch of sky no bigger to us than a grain of sand held at arm’s length: