The Hubble Telescope's Best Images Ever Taken
First launched in 1990, the Hubble Telescope is coming up on its 30th anniversary in space. Having provided us with some of the most incredible images from our known universe, the Hubble has allowed us to explore parts of the universe no man-made craft could reach.
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1
The Butterfly Nebula
This incredible image of the Butterfly Nebula was taken by the Hubble in 2009, after the Wide Field Camera 3 was installed. This was one of the first photos taken of a "bipolar nebula," which displays exactly what happens when a star is at the end of its life. Spewing dust and gas into surrounding space.
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2
The Tadpole Galaxy
Barraged with collisions over its lifespan, the Tadpole Galaxy has bursts of star formation trailing out throughout its tail. More amazingly still, that behind this galaxy in the picture lie thousands of others that the Hubble can pick up.
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3
Star Cluster NGC 602
On the far edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 200 thousand light years away from our own, there is a young star cluster that can be found. Star Cluster NGC 602 provides incredible visuals of the transition from the original gas and dust cloud into stars that are just at the beginning of their lives.
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4
Galaxy NGC1300
With it's unique, elegant form and amazing coloring, Galaxy NGC1300, a barrel spiral galaxy, provides an incredible view. In this image as well you can see other galaxies further off strewn about this one, spanning over 100,000 light years.
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5
The Mice Galaxies
When mice collide, its usually in a try not to laugh video. But these interacting galaxies are actually called the Mice Galaxies. These two are literally pulling each other apart, and most likely each has already passed through the other during their existence.
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6
The Helix Nebula
The multi-colored rings and eye-shaped Helix Nebula is actually pieces of dying stars, in the form of tight knots of condensed gas. These materials will hurtle through space until they too are used in order to create a star, or maybe even help being one of the building blocks of a new planet.
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7
The Eagle Nebula - Pillars of Creation
One of the most iconic images ever taken from space, the Pillars of Creation, is actually a number of columns of compressed interstellar gases, located at the very center of the Eagle Nebula (M16). This was originally photographed first in 1995, before another picture was taken and released on Hubble's 25th anniversary in space.
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8
JUPITER’S AURORA
This is a truly exceptional event in space. In the picture, Jupiter's Aurora, a much larger and more intense and constant version of Earth's Northern Lights. As Jupiter's moon's of Io, Ganymede, and Europa circle extremely close to the northern pole aurora of Jupiter, the trails you see are footprint emissions as they orbit around the planet.
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9
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Many of Hubble's most incredible images come from here, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the farthest galaxies humans have ever observed. Cutting across billions of light years, this is a "deep core sample of the universe," consisting of over 10,000 galaxies. Those lights you see in the image? Each one is a galaxy.
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10
The Veil Nebula
The Veil Nebula is remnants of a massive supernova that is located only 2,100 lightyears from Earth. It is one of the largest and most dazzling sources of X-rays in the night sky. Astronomers believe that the Nebula was created when a star with a mass 20 times larger than the sun exploded around 8,000 years ago.
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