Hubble is spying on the colorful change of seasons on Saturn

The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years from Earth and is in Orion’s belt in the constellation Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae – and on a clear, dark night it is visible to the naked eye. The nebula is the closest star-forming region to Earth.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the Discovery space shuttle on April 24, 1990.

Hubble has given us many pictures of our neighbor Mars. This image was taken in 2003, when Mars took the closest approach in almost 60,000 years. On August 27, 2003, the two worlds were only 34.6 million miles from center to center. Instead, Mars may be about 249 million miles away from Earth.

Hubble captured this image in 2007 of Ganymede who seemed to be looking under Jupiter. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and is even larger than Mercury.

Hubble captured this image of Saturn in 2004, a vision so clear that some of the planet’s smaller rings are visible.

Hubble tracked the clouds on Uranus in this 1997 image. The image is a composite of three near-infrared images. The planet’s rings are prominent in the near infrared. Eight of Uranus’ 27 months can be seen in both images. Uranus is about 1.75 billion miles from Earth.

Hubble captured this image of the distant blue-green world of Neptune in 2005. Fourteen different colored filters were used to help scientists learn more about Neptune’s atmosphere. Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles from Earth.

Hubble discovered four of Pluto’s five months. In 2005: Nix and Hydra were found. Hubble discovered Kerberos in 2011 and Styx in 2012. The new discoveries joined Pluto’s large moon, Charon, which was discovered in 1978. Styx was found by scientists using Hubble to look for potential dangers to the ship. New Horizons spacecraft that flew near Pluto in July 2015. Pluto is about 2.9 billion miles from Earth.

The Horse Nebula Nebula is a favorite target for astronomers. Look closely and you will see what the head of a horse that rises in the stars looks like. This Hubble image captures the nebula in infrared wavelengths. The nebula is 1,600 light-years from Earth.

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is a pile of bright gas thrown into space by a dying star. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows details about structures, including high-speed gas jets and unusual gas nodes. This color image is a composite of three images taken at different wavelengths. The nebula is estimated to be 1,000 years old. It is about 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco.

The Bug or Butterfly Nebula looks like a butterfly with wings spread over the galaxy. In fact, it is a cloud of gas fluttering spilled by a dying star. Scientists say the gas exceeds 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and expands into space at more than 600,000 miles per hour. This image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, a camera installed on Hubble during its May 2009 upgrade by shuttle astronauts. The nebula is about 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.

Astronomers have combined several Hubble images taken in 2014 to create an enhanced image of Hubble’s iconic 1995 “Pillars of Creation.” The new image shows a wider view of the pillars, which extend with a height of about 5 light-years. The pillars are part of a small region of the Eagle Nebula, which is about 6,500 light-years from Earth.

This huge nebula is 7,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae and is a nursery for new stars. It also has several stars estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times larger than the mass of our Sun, including Eta Carinae, one of the brightest stars known and one of the most massive stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

One of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, can be seen with the naked eye if you know where to look on a clear, dark night. In 2012, scientists using data from Hubble predicted that Andromeda would collide with the Milky Way in about four billion years. Andromeda is 2.5 million light-years from Earth.

The cigar galaxy is 12 million light-years away. It takes its name from its shape: From Earth it looks like an elongated elliptical disk.

It’s called one of the most photogenic galaxies: the Sombrero Galaxy looks like the giant wide rim of a Mexican hat standing among the stars. It can be seen with a small telescope. It is about 28 million light-years from Earth.

This group of galaxies is about 290 million light-years from Earth. It is named after its discoverer, the French astronomer Edouard Stephan, who first saw it in 1877.

Hubble captured this image of a group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger galaxy has a central disk that is distorted into a rose shape by pulling from its partner below.

In 2004, astronomers unveiled the deepest visible portrait of the universe ever made. Called the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, the one-million-second long exposure shows the first galaxies to appear shortly after the Big Bang. The image shows about 10,000 galaxies. In 2012, astronomers assembled an updated image called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field. He combined 10 years of Hubble space telescope photos taken from a patch of sky in the center of the original Hubble Ultra-Deep field. The new image contains about 5,500 galaxies.

This 2018 Hubble image shows the Lagoon Nebula, a chaotic nursery full of babies. At the center of this image, a young star 200,000 times brighter than our sun emits ultraviolet radiation.

Even stars like to blow bubbles. This 2016 image shares Hubble’s view of the Bubble Nebula, where a massive superhotic star blows a huge bubble into space. The nebula has a radius of 7 light-years.

The cone nebula is a turbulent pillar for the formation of gas and dust stars. It is 7 light-years long, but this image taken by Hubble in 2002 shows the first 2.5 light-years (meaning 23 million round trips to the moon). Ultraviolet radiation causes hydrogen gas to emit a strange red glow.

This is a detailed look at the section of a slowly expanding supernova or the remnants of an exploded star. Hubble took this image in 2015 of the Veil Nebula 2,100 light-years away. The star was once 20 times more massive than our sun, but only the gas wires remain.

In 2009, NASA’s Large Observatories, including Hubble with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, combined their observational power to create this unprecedented composite image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Infrared and X-ray light captured by telescopes can be seen here. Hubble’s contributions are in yellow, Spitzer’s observations are in red, and Chandra’s are blue and purple.

Hubble also teamed up with Spitzer to create this stunning image of the Orion Nebula in 2006. The image combines visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light. A community of massive stars is represented by the yellow in the center of the image.

Hubble captured this image of a halo of light expanding around the 2004 V838 Monocerotis.

M83 is a nearby spiral galaxy, and this 2014 Hubble image shows thousands of groups of stars and supernova remnants. Young stars can be seen in pink hydrogen gas bubbles.

This infrared light image made by Hubble in 2014 shows the Monkey’s Head Nebula, where the stellar birth takes place 6,400 light-years away. Clouds of dust and bright gas swirl here, representing the ingredients for star formation.

This ultraviolet light observation of the giant star Eta Carinae was taken by Hubble in 2019. The star is the larger of the two orbiting each other. It is known to have violent outbursts, as evidenced by the bubbles here.

The fireworks are even more beautiful in space. Hubble captured this image of a huge group of 3,000 stars in 2015. It’s called Westerlund 2, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth.