Hubble's Greatest Snaps

Here's Hubble's best year by year from HubbleCast:

1990: Saturn
Among the first images to be sent back from Hubble after its launch in April 1990, this image of Saturn is good by the standards of ground-based telescopes.

1991: Orion Nebula
Although not perfectly sharp, this early image of the Orion Nebula nevertheless shows the rich colours and structures of this bright star-forming region.

1992: Herbig-Haro 2
Throughout the region of the Orion Nebula are numerous streamers of gas that come from newborn stars, known to astronomers as Herbig-Haro Objects.

1993: Messier 100
In late 1993, Hubble's teething problems were resolved in the first servicing mission. Before-and-after images of the core of spiral galaxy Messier 100 show how this dramatically improved the telescope's image quality.

1994: Shoemaker-Levy 9 hits Jupiter
Soon after the astronauts repaired Hubble during the first servicing mission, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.

1995: Eagle Nebula
Hubble's image of the 'pillars of creation' in the Eagle Nebula is one of its most famous. These huge, dusty structures enshroud pockets of ongoing star formation.

1996: NGC 6826
This image from 1996 shows a planetary nebula, which represents the other extremity of a star's life from the Eagle Nebula. Planetary nebulae form when Sun-like stars puff out their outer layers as they run low on fuel.

1997: Mars
NASA's Mars Pathfinder probe was en route to Mars in 1997 while Hubble took this image.

1998: Ring Nebula
Another planetary nebula, the Ring Nebula is one of the most famous.

1999: Keyhole Nebula
The Keyhole Nebula, part of the larger Carina Nebula is another bright star-forming region.

2000: NGC 1999
Not all nebulae glow brightly. NGC 1999 contains a dark patch silhouetted against a brighter background which reflects starlight.

2001: ESO 510-G13
Hubble's image of this galaxy shows the dramatic deformations that can occur after collisions between galaxies.

2002: Cone Nebula
Further upgrades in 2002, including the installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys increased resolution and picture quality again. Hubble's ultra-sharp image of the Cone Nebula demonstrates the new instrument's capabilities.

2003: Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Usually astronomers know what they're going to look at when they plan their observations. For the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, observed over 11 days between September 2003 and January 2004, they did not.

2004: Antennae Galaxies
The dramatic collision of two spiral galaxies is visible in this image of the Antennae Galaxies. The bright pink patches visible across much of the vista are pockets of star formation triggered by the gravitational interaction of the galaxies.

2005: The Orion Nebula
This image of the Orion Nebula is one of the largest and most detailed ever made.

2006: Messier 9
Globular clusters, roughly spherical collections of stars, contain some of the oldest stars in our Milky Way. Hubble's high-resolution observations allow astronomers to discern individual stars right into the centre of these clusters.

2007: NGC 4874
This image of NGC 4874, a galaxy in the Coma Cluster, was taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys just two days before it suffered an electronic failure in January 2007.

2008: NGC 2818
This image of planetary nebula NGC 2818 dates from this period. It is worth noting that even with its capabilities constrained, Hubble was still able to produce images that compete with any telescope on the ground.

2009: Bug Nebula
In 2009, astronauts travelled to Hubble for another servicing mission, which installed new and upgraded cameras. The Bug Nebula was one of the first images sent back: Hubble was back in business.

2010: Centaurus A
Using its new instrumentation, Hubble peered into the heart of Centaurus A, a dramatically dusty galaxy.

2011: Tarantula Nebula
Just published in April 2012, this image of the Tarantula Nebula combines a mosaic of Hubble observations, which capture the detail and structure of the nebula.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Steven Bnd]

1:39 Top left of pic. The universe giving us the finger lol

[christian casteel]

16 Kent Hovind family members watched this...

[DSMtsi23]

Gorgeous

[exoplanetomega]

You can't clearly grasp something that is out of the range of current (scientific) knowledge. At most, realization that it's beyond our understanding

[Danny Sheldon]

Why is that?

[exoplanetomega]

I feel sorry for people who think they do.

[hungthepro1234]

Pillars of creation!

There are evidences that we can only see them for a limited time, cause it has been destroyed and what we see today is just that the speed of light need time to load the present!

[JustinLRyan]

lol at bug nebula...pretty sure its nickname is butterfly nebula.

[xhaleyxjordanx]

1995!!

[jedisenior]

*in the theoretical

[jedisenior]

Yeah no bother. I will say this however, don't be so quick to believe what these "physicists" tell us. They are trying to get funding just like everybody else, and often funding comes from being noticed. So many of their claims should be taken with a large pinch of salt.