Hubble Archives

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Allen Versfeld

Hubble and Webb are the Dream Team. Don't Break Them Up

Webb and Hubble's Views of Spiral Galaxy NGC 628 Image credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Global Science and Technology, Inc./Amy Moran

Many people think of the James Webb Space Telescope as a sort of Hubble 2. They understand that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has served us well but is now old, and overdue for replacement. NASA seems to agree, as they have not sent a maintenance mission in over fifteen years, and are already preparing to wind down operations. But a recent paper argues that this is a mistake. Despite its age, HST still performs extremely well and continues to produce an avalanche of valuable scientific results. And given that JWST was never designed as a replacement for HST — it is an infrared (IR) telescope) — we would best be served by operating both telescopes in tandem, to maximize coverage of all observations.

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024 by Matt Williams

Jets From Supermassive Black Holes Create New Stars Along Their Trajectory

Artist's concept looking down into the core of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. Credit: NASA/ESA,/J. Olmsted (STScI)

Since the 1970s, astronomers have observed that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) reside at the centers of most massive galaxies. In some cases, these black holes accelerate gas and dust from their poles, forming relativistic jets that can extend for thousands of light-years. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers observed the jet emanating from the center of M87, the supermassive galaxy located 53.5 million light-years away. To their surprise, the team observed nova erupting along the jet’s trajectory, twice as many as they observed in M87 itself.

September 18, 2024September 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Early Universe Had a Lot of Black Holes

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field seen in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

The Hubble Deep Field and its successor, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, showed us how vast our Universe is and how it teems with galaxies of all shapes and sizes. They focused on tiny patches of the sky that appeared to be empty and revealed the presence of countless galaxies. Now, astronomers are using the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field and follow-up images to reveal the presence of a large number of supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

This is a shocking result because, according to theory, these massive objects shouldn’t have been so plentiful billions of years ago.

August 27, 2024August 27, 2024 by Matt Williams

Massive Stars Shine in This Ultraviolet View From Hubble

NGC 346 is nestled within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/ Gladys Kober

Just outside the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 210,000 light-years from Earth, there is the dwarf galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Measuring about 18,900 light-years in diameter and containing roughly 3 billion stars, the SMC and its counterpart – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – orbit the Milky Way as satellite galaxies. Scientists are particularly interested in these satellites because of what they can teach us about star formation and the process where galaxies evolve through mergers, which is something the Milky Way will do with these two galaxies someday.

Another interesting feature of the SMC is the spectacular star cluster known as NGC 346, located near the center of the brightest star-forming region in the SMC, the hydrogen-rich nebula designated N66. Yesterday, NASA released a new image of this star cluster acquired by the venerable Hubble Space Telescope, which provides a unique and breathtaking view of this star cluster. These images were made possible thanks to Hubble’s sharp resolution and unique ability to make sensitive ultraviolet observations.

June 20, 2024June 20, 2024 by Evan Gough

Here’s Hubble’s First Image in its New Pointing Mode

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the galaxy NGC 1546 while in single gyro mode. Image Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, David Thilker (JHU)

This is probably what the demise of the Hubble Space Telescope was always going to look like: components failing one by one, with no way to replace them. In the last few months, the Hubble has repeatedly gone into safe mode as one of its remaining three gyros keeps giving faulty readings. But the Hubble and the people operating it are resilient and resourceful. The telescope is back to science operations now, though in single gyro mode.

NASA has released the first image the Hubble captured in this mode, and it’s clear that the Hubble is performing well.

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

Hubble's Back, but Only Using One Gyro

This image of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was taken on May 19, 2009 after deployment during Servicing Mission 4. NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope has experienced ongoing problems with one of its three remaining gyroscopes, so NASA has decided to shift the telescope into single gyro mode. While the venerable space telescope has now returned to daily science operations, single gyro mode means Hubble will only use one gyro to maintain a lock on its target. This will slow its slew time and decrease some of its scientific output. But this plan increases the overall lifetime of the 34-year-old telescope, keeping one gyro in reserve. NASA is also troubleshooting the malfunctioning gyro, hoping to return it online.

June 6, 2024June 6, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

It’s Time for Hardworking Hubble to Slow Down a Little

Thirty-four years is a long time for a telescope. Yet, that is how long the veteran workhorse of NASA’s space telescope fleet has been operating. Admittedly, Hubble was served by several repair missions during the space shuttle era. Still, the system has been floating in the void and taking some of humanity’s most breathtaking pictures ever captured since April 24th, 1990. But now, time seems to be finally catching up with it, as NASA plans to limit some of its operations to ensure its continued life, starting with gyroscopes.

April 28, 2024April 28, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

Uh oh. Hubble's Having Gyro Problems Again

The Hubble Space Telescope has gone through its share of gyroscopes in its 34-year history in space. Astronauts replaced the gyros during the last servicing mission in 2009, bringing it back up to six (three with three spares), but they only last so long. Last week, HST went into safe mode because one of the gyros experienced fluctuations in power. NASA paused the telescope’s science operations today to investigate the fluctuations and perhaps come up with a fix.

With this one gyro experiencing problems, only two of the gyros remain fully operational. HST works best with three gyros, and so engineers are working to understand the issue and hopefully figure out a way to fix it remotely. However, several years ago, engineers figured out a way to still conduct science operations with only a single gyro.

March 15, 2024March 15, 2024 by Matt Williams

Webb Continues to Confirm That Universe is Behaving Strangely

Image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth, combines data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Riess (JHU/STScI)

Over a century ago, astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaitre independently discovered that the Universe was expanding. Since then, scientists have attempted to measure the rate of expansion (known as the Hubble-Lemaitre Constant) to determine the origin, age, and ultimate fate of the Universe. This has proved very daunting, as ground-based telescopes yielded huge uncertainties, leading to age estimates of anywhere between 10 and 20 billion years! This disparity between these measurements, produced by different techniques, gave rise to what is known as the Hubble Tension.

It was hoped that the aptly named Hubble Space Telescope (launched in 1990) would resolve this tension by providing the deepest views of the Universe to date. After 34 years of continuous service, Hubble has managed to shrink the level of uncertainty but not eliminate it. This led some in the scientific community to suggest (as an Occam’s Razor solution) that Hubble‘s measurements were incorrect. But according to the latest data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Hubble’s successor, it appears that the venerable space telescope’s measurements were right all along.

March 15, 2024March 15, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

It's Time for Jupiter's Annual Checkup by Hubble

Jupiter as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope on January 5 and 6, 2024. Credit: NASA/ESA/Space Telescope Science Institute.

Each year, the Hubble Space Telescope focuses on the giant planets in our Solar System when they’re near the closest point to Earth, which means they’ll be large and bright in the sky. Jupiter had its photos taken on January 5-6th, 2024, showing off both sides of the planet. Hubble was looking for storm activity and changes in Jupiter’s atmosphere.