The venerable Hubble House Telescope continues to redefine our understanding of the cosmos because it celebrates a unprecedented milestone this week – 35 years of uninterrupted commentary from Earth orbit.
To mark the event, NASA and the European House Company have launched a group of beautiful new photos showcasing Hubble’s outstanding capabilities, from detailed observations of Mars to dramatic stellar nurseries and distant galaxies.
Towards all odds, the telescope that basically remodeled human understanding of the universe stays on the peak of its scientific capabilities, with demand for commentary time at a staggering 6-to-1 ratio of functions to out there slots.
![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.]](https://scienceblog.com/esa/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2025/04/Barred_Spiral_Galaxy_NGC_5335_pillars.jpg)
“Hubble at the moment is on the peak of its scientific return because of the dedication, perseverance and abilities of engineers, scientists and mission operators,” notes the official anniversary assertion, highlighting the extraordinary longevity of what was initially deliberate as a 15-year mission.
The telescope’s journey has been something however easy. From an preliminary spherical aberration in its main mirror that threatened the complete mission to 5 high-risk servicing missions by area shuttle crews between 1993 and 2009, Hubble’s story is certainly one of human ingenuity overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges.
These heroic interventions by astronauts, together with European House Company workforce members on two of the missions, have enabled Hubble to make almost 1.7 million observations of roughly 55,000 astronomical targets. The ensuing scientific discoveries have generated over 22,000 analysis papers with greater than 1.3 million citations as of February 2025.
Earlier than Hubble’s launch in 1990, our view of the cosmos was severely restricted by Earth’s ambiance. Floor-based telescopes might see solely midway throughout the universe, and estimates for the age of the cosmos different broadly. Supermassive black holes remained theoretical entities, and no planets had been confirmed past our photo voltaic system.
![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 ]](https://scienceblog.com/esa/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2025/04/Planetary_nebula_NGC_2899_pillars.jpg)
Hubble modified all the pieces. Its unparalleled readability – ten instances sharper than typical ground-based telescopes of its period – and talent to detect objects one-billionth the brightness of what human eyes can see revolutionized astronomy.
Among the many telescope’s most vital contributions are exact measurements of the universe’s enlargement fee, affirmation that supermassive black holes exist on the facilities of most galaxies, the primary evaluation of exoplanet atmospheres, and important observations resulting in the invention of darkish vitality – the mysterious drive accelerating cosmic enlargement.
The anniversary picture assortment showcases Hubble’s versatility. New observations of Mars reveal water-ice clouds giving the Crimson Planet a frosty look as its northern polar cap experiences the start of Martian spring. The planet was roughly 98 million kilometers from Earth when these photos have been captured in late 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.]](https://scienceblog.com/esa/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2025/04/Mars_December_2024_pillars.jpg)
Extra distant targets embody the planetary nebula NGC 2899, with its dramatic bipolar outflow of gasoline propelled by a scorching 22,000-degree Celsius white dwarf star. The nebula, pinched within the center by what astronomers describe as “a fragmented ring or torus – trying like a half-eaten donut,” lies roughly 4,500 light-years away.
One other spotlight is a small portion of the large Rosette Nebula, a star-forming area spanning 100 light-years situated 5,200 light-years from Earth. Hubble’s picture focuses on only a 4-light-year part, roughly the space between our Solar and Alpha Centauri, revealing darkish hydrogen clouds being sculpted by radiation from close by huge stars.
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 rounds out the gathering, showcasing patchy star formation throughout its disk reasonably than the well-defined spiral arms frequent in lots of galaxies. Its central bar construction, which “channels gasoline inwards towards the galactic heart, fueling star formation,” seems in roughly 30 p.c of noticed galaxies, together with our personal Milky Manner.
European astronomers have made specifically efficient use of Hubble, constantly securing greater than the 15% of observing time assured by ESA’s participation within the mission. Their discoveries embody proof for intermediate-mass black holes, terribly brilliant explosions removed from any host galaxy, and most notably, the identification of Earendel in 2022 – essentially the most distant single star ever noticed, seen because it existed 12.9 billion years in the past when the universe was lower than a billion years previous.
Past deep area, Hubble continues to disclose secrets and techniques inside our photo voltaic system. The OPAL program just lately celebrated a decade learning the outer planets, discovering water vapor on Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede, mysterious “spokes” in Saturn’s rings, and monitoring adjustments within the dimension of Jupiter’s Nice Crimson Spot.
Maybe most remarkably, Hubble has transitioned from pioneer to accomplice, now working in tandem with the James Webb House Telescope to supply complementary observations throughout completely different wavelengths. Webb itself would possibly by no means have been constructed with out Hubble first revealing what its designers name an “undiscovered nation” of numerous distant galaxies.
“Not like another telescope earlier than it, Hubble has made astronomy very related, partaking, and accessible for individuals of all ages,” notes the anniversary assertion. “Hubble turned ‘the individuals’s telescope,’ touching the minds in addition to the feelings of a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of people across the globe.”
As Hubble enters its thirty sixth 12 months of operation, it exhibits no indicators of slowing down. With its immense archive of greater than 400 terabytes of information and continued manufacturing of groundbreaking science, the telescope that basically modified humanity’s notion of the cosmos stays an indispensable instrument in astronomers’ quest to grasp the universe.
Associated
Uncover extra from European House Company Tracker
Subscribe to get the most recent posts despatched to your e mail.
