It’s the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 year anniversary!

Watch this video sharing some of the Hubble Space Telescope’s greatest hits over 35 years.

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Happy 35th anniversary, Hubble!

On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery soared skyward with a precious package onboard: the Hubble Space Telescope. It entered Earth orbit the next day, sending back a self-portrait with our blue-and-white home planet below. For 35 years, Hubble has been taking images of our universe. In fact, Hubble has made more than 1.6 million observations. And yet it still has only observed 1/10 of 1% of the entire sky. The universe is vast indeed, and there is much to see. For Hubble’s 35th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at some of Hubble’s greatest hits.

Hubble: A metal cylinder with solar panels floating above Earth. — The Hubble Space Telescope entered Earth orbit on April 25, 1990, a day after its launch aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Image via NASA.

Observations of our solar system

In our solar system, Hubble has watched Jupiter’s Great Red Spot evolve, captured auroras on the gas giant planets and discovered a link between Neptune’s clouds and the sun. In addition, Hubble found water on Jupiter’s moons and found new moons of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

Close up on Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot and dark spots spaced out below. — Hubble watched as the shredded comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter in 1994, and then it followed up with images of the aftermath. In addition, Hubble watched another asteroid impact Jupiter in 2009. Image via NASA.

Orangish planet with dark spots and white clouds near the north and south poles. — Hubble has also observed Mars during good weather, such as this view of a partly cloudy day on June 26, 2001, to days when planet-wide dust storms obscure the surface. Image via NASA.

An eye on our galaxy

Hubble has witnessed star birth and the resulting bizarre formations of surrounding gas and dust, such as the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. It’s also examined the death shrouds of stars, such as the Crab Nebula and Hourglass Nebula. Hubble has also looked at protoplanets, exoplanets and even exocomets.

Dark dust surrounded by bluish gas in lumpy pillar shapes. — The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula is one of the most iconic Hubble images. New stars are in the process of forming here, and their light and winds are eroding the surrounding dust. Image via NASA.

A cluster of stars dense at center and more disperse at edges. — This Hubble image shows M15, one of the oldest and densest globular clusters in our galaxy. It’s about 12 billion years old and has a black hole at it center. Image via NASA.

Hubble peers into our universe

Hubble has peered far back in time to observe some of the youngest galaxies in our universe. Hubble’s original Deep Field from 1995 stared at a relatively blank spot in the sky, seeing past the stars of our galaxy and into deep space. What it saw was around 3,000 galaxies, some of the youngest and most distant known. Since then, Hubble has also taken “ultra” deep fields and “extreme” deep fields. We see some of the galaxies in these images as they were 13.2 billion years ago.

Black background with many small dots and oblong shapes of various colors. — NASA released the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field on September 25, 2012. It represents 10 years of exposure time. All the light you see here came from galaxies in deep space. Image via NASA.

Spiral galaxy with light colored center, bluish arms and some dark dusty lanes. — Hubble has also imaged galaxies closer to us in the universe, such as M100. This spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices is about 56 million light-years away. It has several small black holes in its spiral arms. Image via NASA.

Want more? Read NASA’s ebook, Reshaping Our Cosmic View.

Bottom line: We’re celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with a look at some of its greatest hits through images and discoveries.

Via NASA

Kelly Kizer Whitt

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About the Author:

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky’s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.

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