In celebration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, an assortment of compelling images have been released today that were recently taken by Hubble. This stretches from the planet Mars to dramatic images of stellar birth and death, to a magnificent neighbouring galaxy. After over three decades of perusing the restless universe, Hubble remains a household word as the most well-recognized telescope in scientific history.

Astronomers knew that placing a telescope above Earth’s blurry atmosphere would allow for them to behold the Universe like never before. Hubble’s view would be ten times sharper than conventional ground-based telescopes of the time. Its high sensitivity would uncover objects more than one-billionth the brightness of the faintest stars seen by the human eye. Unfiltered by Earth's atmosphere, its broad wavelength coverage would stretch from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. Glorious celestial wonders would come into focus. Moreover, Hubble would be an audacious leap forward in human imagination, engineering prowess, and boundless curiosity.

Before Hubble, no generation ever had access to unimaginably vibrant views of space, stretching almost all the way back to almost the beginning of time. For most of history, the complexity and extent of the vast cosmos was left largely to human imagination. But Hubble entered the final sprint in the race to the edge of the visible Universe. In the early 1920s, the telescope’s namesake, astronomer Edwin Hubble, started this marathon with the discovery of galaxies outside of our Milky Way.

Hubble today is at the peak of its scientific return thanks to the dedication, perseverance and skills of engineers, scientists and mission operators. Astronaut shuttle crews gallantly chased and rendezvoused with Hubble on five servicing missions from 1993 to 2009. The astronauts, including ESA astronauts on two of the servicing missions, upgraded Hubble's cameras, computers and other support systems.

By extending Hubble’s operational life the telescope has made nearly 1.7 million observations, looking at approximately 55,000 astronomical targets. Hubble discoveries have resulted in over 22,000 papers and over 1.3 million citations as of February 2025. All the data collected by Hubble is archived and currently adds up to over 400 terabytes. The demand for observing time remains very high with 6:1 oversubscriptions, making it one of the most in-demand observatories today.

Hubble’s long operational life has allowed astronomers to see astronomical changes spanning over three decades: seasonal variability on the planets in our solar system, black hole jets travelling at nearly the speed of light, stellar convulsions, asteroid collisions, expanding supernova bubbles, and much more.

A lasting legacy

Hubble’s legacy is the bridge between our past and future knowledge of a Universe that is unbelievably glorious, as well as rambunctious — with colliding galaxies, voracious black holes, and relentless stellar fireworks. Hubble, more than any other telescope, sees the Universe through the eyes of Einstein: microlensing, time-dilation, the cosmological constant, matter disappearing into a black hole, a source of gravitational waves.

Before 1990, powerful optical telescopes on Earth could see only halfway across the cosmos. Estimates for the age of the Universe disagreed by a big margin. Supermassive black holes were only suspected to be the powerhouses behind a rare zoo of energetic phenomena. Not a single planet had been seen around another star.

Among its long list of breakthroughs: Hubble’s deep fields unveiled myriad galaxies dating back to the early Universe; precisely measured the Universe’s expansion; found that supermassive black holes are common among galaxies; made the first measurement of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets; contributed to discovering dark energy, which is accelerating the Universe.

After three decades, Hubble remains a household word as the most well-recognized and celebrated scientific instrument in all of human history. Hubble’s discoveries and images have been nothing less than transformative for the public’s perception of the cosmos. Unlike any other telescope before it, Hubble has made astronomy very relevant, engaging, and accessible for people of all ages. Hubble became “the people’s telescope,” touching the minds as well as the emotions of hundreds of millions of humans around the globe.

A single Hubble snapshot can portray the Universe as awesome, mysterious, and beautiful—and at the same time chaotic, overwhelming, and foreboding. These pictures have become iconic, seminal, and timeless. They viscerally communicate the value of science: the awe and drive to seek understanding of our place in the cosmos. In commemoration NASA and ESA released images today of five astronomical targets that were selected for the celebration, ranging from planets to nebulae to galaxies.

The relentless pace of Hubble’s trailblazing discoveries kicked-started a new generation of space telescopes for the 21st century. The powerful James Webb Space Telescope may not have been built without Hubble revealing an “undiscovered country” of far-flung, seemingly countless galaxies. Hubble provided the first observational evidence that there was a lot for Webb to pursue in infrared wavelengths that reach even greater distances beyond Hubble’s gaze. Now, Hubble and Webb are often being used in complement to study everything from exoplanets to galaxy dynamics.

35th anniversary images

An assortment of compelling images have been released today that were recently taken by Hubble:

Mars: These are a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the observations, Mars was approximately 98 million kilometres from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance. The icy northern polar cap was experiencing the start of Martian spring.

Planetary nebula NGC 2899: This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 22 000 degree Celsius white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus – looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous “pillars” that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colors are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela.

Rosette Nebula: This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our Sun and the neighbouring Alpha Centauri star system.) Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440). An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it. The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colors come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335: This object is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way.

Hubble’s science and discoveries in recent years

Even at the impressive age of 35, there has been no slowdown in the research and new discoveries made using Hubble — if anything, the opposite. Astronomers from Europe make intensive use of the telescope, with the share of observing time awarded to European-led programmes being consistently above the 15% guaranteed by ESA’s participation in the Hubble mission thanks to their many proposals with strong scientific merit. This has led directly to discoveries including evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri, a precursor to the earliest supermassive black holes, a bizarre explosion of extraordinarily bright light originating far from any host galaxy, hydrogen burning in white dwarf stars, and the absence of Population III stars as far back in time as Hubble can see. A particular highlight, and a demonstration of Hubble’s incredible capabilities, was the discovery in 2022 of Earendel. The most distant single star ever seen, Earendel is viewed 12.9 billion years into the past when the Universe was under a billion years old.

Benefitting from Hubble’s long operational life, the OPAL programme celebrated a decade studying the Solar System’s outer planets. Discoveries such as evidence for water vapour on Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede, “spokes” in Saturn’s rings, the size of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and the colours of Uranus and Neptune are just some that have resulted. Smaller Solar System bodies got attention from Hubble as well — not least the asteroid Dimorphos, target of the DART asteroid redirection test. Hubble took images of Dimorphos before and after the impact alongside Webb, later producing a movie of the debris and spotting ejected boulders. A citizen science project also discovered thousands of asteroid trails in over two decades of archived Hubble snapshots.

Beyond the Solar System, Hubble proved its continued importance in the rapidly-growing field of research into exoplanets. It studied weather patterns in an exoplanet’s atmosphere, saw a new atmosphere being formed around a rocky exoplanet similar to Earth, and found a small exoplanet with water vapour in its atmosphere. Also completed in 2021 was a compilation of supernova host galaxies from 18 years of study, images that were used to measure the Hubble constant to its highest accuracy yet. This year too brought the culmination of the largest ever photomosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy, created from ten years of Hubble observations of our near neighbour.

Hubble celebrates 35 years

In celebration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, an assortment of compelling images have been released today that were recently taken by Hubble:

Upper left: The planet Mars as seen in late December 2024. Thin water-ice clouds, revealed by Hubble’s unique ultraviolet capability, give the Red Planet a frosty appearance.

Upper right: Planetary nebula NGC 2899. This moth-like nebula is sculpted by the outflow of radiation and stellar winds from a dying star – a white dwarf – at the center.

Lower left: The Rosette Nebula. This is a small portion of the huge star-forming region. Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image.

Lower right: The galaxy NGC 5335, which is a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disc. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy.

[Image description: Composite shows four Hubble images in quarters. At top left is a crisp view of Mars in shades of orange, blues, and browns. At top right is planetary nebula NGC 2899, which is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its central torus appearing semi-transparent and blue/green, and top and bottom edges in orange. At bottom left is a tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula. Very dark gray material shaped like a V takes up the center. At bottom right is barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 with a milky yellow center that forms a bar surrounded by multiple blue star-filled spiral that wrap up counterclockwise.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Mars (December 2024)

This is a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the observations, Mars was approximately 98 million kilometres from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance. The icy northern polar cap was experiencing the start of Martian spring.

In the left image, the bright orange Tharsis plateau is visible with its chain of dormant volcanoes. The largest volcano, Olympus Mons, pokes above the clouds at the 10 o’clock position near the northwest limb. At an elevation of 21 000 metres, it is 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest above sea level. Valles Marineris, Mars’ roughly 4,000 kilometre-long canyon system, is a dark, linear, horizontal feature near center left.

In the right image, high-altitude evening clouds can be seen along the planet’s eastern limb. The 2,250-kilometre-wide Hellas basin, an ancient asteroid impact feature, appears far to the south. Most of the hemisphere is dominated by the classical “shark fin” feature, Syrtis Major.

[Image description: Two views of planet Mars on a black background of space observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. At left, text: December 28, 2024 20:00 UT. At right, text: December 29, 2024 13:18 UT. In both images, its atmosphere is clear and the surface appears detailed. Most of the planet is shades of orange. At left, the brightest orange area appears in the left half. At right, the brightest orange area is centered and takes on the rough shape of a sleeping mask. In both views, darker surface features are noticeable on the lower half of the planet. These have a mix of orange, blue, and gray hues. At the top and bottom, white regions mark the planet’s polar caps. The entire limb of the planet, its visible edge, has a blue hue. The blue doesn’t form an even circle at the edges, and appears thinner toward the left and right, and thicker in some areas.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Mars and Phobos (annotated)

This pair of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken on 28 December (top) and 29 December (bottom) 2024. Each image shows a different side of the planet, with the accompanying moon Phobos. Various features are identified in the images, including the polar ice caps and clouds, as well as multiple terrestrial features.

At the midpoint of the observations, Mars was approximately 98 million kilometres from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance. The icy northern polar cap was experiencing the start of Martian spring.

In the top image, the bright orange Tharsis plateau is visible with its chain of dormant volcanoes. The largest volcano, Olympus Mons, pokes above the clouds at the 10 o’clock position near the northwest limb. At an elevation of over 21 000 meters, it is 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest above sea level. Valles Marineris, Mars’ over 4,000-kilometre-long canyon system, is a dark, linear, horizontal feature near center left.

In the bottom image, high-altitude evening clouds can be seen along the planet’s eastern limb. The 2,250-kilometre-wide Hellas basin, an ancient asteroid impact feature, appears far to the south. Most of the hemisphere is dominated by the classical “shark fin” feature, Syrtis Major.

[Image description: Two views of Mars. Top left text: Mars & Phobos, Hubble Space Telescope; filters in colors: F275W, purple; F410M, blue; F502N, green; F673N, red. Top image: December 28, 2024 20:00 UT. Most of the planet is shades of orange. The brightest orange area on the left half. At the top and bottom, white polar caps. Limb is blue. Text top center: northern polar cap, clouds. On planet, top to bottom, left to right: Arcadia Planitia, Tempe Terra, Acidalia Planitia; Olympus Monds; Tharsis Montes, Chryse Planitia; Valles Marineris, Terra Meridiana; Solus Planum; Argyre Planitia, Noachis Terra. To the right, dot: Phobos. Lower image: December 29, 2024 13:18 UT. Compass arrows at right, north pointing up, = east left. The planet has similar features; the brightest orange area is two centered two blobs. Text above Mars: northern polar cap, clouds. On-planet: Utopia Planitia; Arabia Terra, Syrtis Major; Terra Meridiani, Schiaparelli Crater, clouds; Noachis Terra, Huygens Crater, Syrtis Minor; Hellas Planitia. At left, dot: Phobos.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Planetary nebula NGC 2899

This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 22 000 degree Celsius white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus – looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous “pillars” that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colours are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela.

[Image description: The planetary nebula NGC 2899 is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its edges pointed up, but its edge-on central torus is semi-transparent in the middle. The top and bottom edges are thick and orange. The center is semi-transparent blue and green. The wider central region looks roughly like a moth, also filled with semi-transparent blue and green. There are two pinpoint-like white stars with diffraction spikes toward the center. Immediately below them, slightly toward the right, is a smaller blue orb, a central star. The next layer of gas and dust is whiter, with some thicker pillars that look like they are rising up at bottom center. The colour fades into reds and purples, and then to orange ]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Planetary nebula NGC 2899 (annotated)

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Rosette Nebula

This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our Sun and the neighbouring Alpha Centauri star system.) Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440). An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it. The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colours come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

[Image description: A tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula. Very dark gray material shaped like a V extends from just below top left all the way down to the lower right corner and back up toward the top right. It looks like thick smoke that has billowed out irregularly, thicker along the line from top left to bottom right, and looser on the piece that goes toward the top right. Behind the dark gray on the left side, from the bottom left to top center, there is dust that looks like arced claw marks that appears in light orange and yellow. The background at top left is hazier and some blues are covered in semi-transparent orange wisps, which makes sections take on green hues. In the bottom right, the background is bluer. There are a few bright red and purple stars scattered along the right half, most toward the bottom. The largest star is at right-center, just at the edge. It is red and has four diffraction spikes.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Rosette Nebula context image

The Rosette Nebula is a vast star-forming region, 100 light-years across, that lies at one end of a giant molecular cloud the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is estimated to contain around 10,000 solar masses. The nebula is located about 5,000 light-years away from Earth. Intense radiation from the young stars inside a cluster in the nebula causes the gasses to glow. The background image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, while the inset is a small portion of the nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The colours come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

[Image description: A square, ground-based observation of the entire Rosette Nebula. A large, diffuse donut shape primarily composed of light brown and gray gas and dust extends to the edges. Several bright blue stars are at its clearer center. There are innumerable small stars throughout the background, most of which are blue. A tiny box at center-left connects to a zoomed-in image of this region at bottom left from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble image shows a dark gray V that extends from just below top left all the way down to the lower right corner and back up toward the top right. It looks like thick, irregular smoke. Behind the dark gray on the left side there are arced lines in light orange and yellow. The background at top left is hazier, the blues covered in semi-transparent orange wisps, making a few sections appear green. In the bottom right, the background is bluer. There are a few bright red and purple stars scattered along the right half.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI, DSS

Rosette Nebula (annotated)

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335

The Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way.

[Image description: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope takes up the majority of the view. At its center is a milky yellow, flattened oval that extends bottom left to top. Within the oval is a bright central region that looks circular, with the very center the brightest. In the bright central region is what looks like a bar, extending from top left to bottom right. Around this is a thick swath of blue stars speckled with white regions. Multiple arms wrap up and around in a counterclockwise direction, becoming fainter the farther out they are. Both the white core and the spiral arms are intertwined with dark streaks of dust. The background of space is black. Thousands of distant galaxies in an array of colors are speckled throughout.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335 (annotated)

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI

VIDEOS

Space Sparks episode

https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505a/

This Space Sparks episode celebrates the 35th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope by showcasing four beautiful new images.

Credit:

Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico Bartmann

Editing: Nico Bartmann

Web and technical support: Enciso Systems

Written by: Bethany Downer

Music: Noizefield - Expect the Unexpected

Footage and photos: NASA, ESA, STScI, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

Hubble celebrates 35th anniversary

https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505b/

In celebration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, an assortment of compelling images have been released today that were recently taken by Hubble. This stretches from the planet Mars, to dramatic images of stellar birth, and death (top right), to a magnificent neighbouring galaxy (bottom right). After over three decades of perusing the restless universe, Hubble remains a household word as the most well-recognized telescope in scientific history.

Credit: