Saturn plays an inspirational role in astronomy. The simple shape of a sphere with rings around it is the quintessential drawing of a planet. The experience of viewing Saturn and its rings through a telescope for the first time is often an awe-inducing revelation. The magnificent ring system has an allure and a grandeur that... Continue Reading →
The text and images in this article were originally published on October 2, 2003, and reflect information about M104 available at that time. HUBBLE MOSAIC OF THE MAJESTIC SOMBRERO GALAXY NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has trained its razor-sharp eye on one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies, the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104).... Continue Reading →
The text and images in this article were originally published on September 5, 2002, and reflect information about Hoag's Object available at that time. HOAG'S OBJECT: A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from NASA's... Continue Reading →
It was 1950 when astronomer Art Hoag published the first description of this object which has come to be named after him. Although he thought it most likely resembled a planetary nebula in some ways, he was skeptical because the size of the object and the properties of its nucleus in comparison to the rest... Continue Reading →
The text and images in this article were originally published on August 1, 2002, and reflect information about Gomez's Hamburger available at that time. HUBBLE ASTRONOMERS FEAST ON AN INTERSTELLAR HAMBURGER Hold the pickles; hold the lettuce. Space is serving up giant hamburgers. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a photograph of a strange object... Continue Reading →
The text and images in this article were originally published on August 29, 2013, and reflect information about IRAS 20324+4057 available at that time. NASA's Hubble Sees a Cosmic Caterpillar This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust resembles a caterpillar on its way to a feast. But the meat of the story is not... Continue Reading →
What Is the #DrawToLifeChallenge? The #DrawToLifeChallenge is a fun summer activity series produced by the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) where we invite everyone to transform our Hubble images. Whether it be in the form of a GIF, an electronically created painting, a scanned crayon creation, or an original... Continue Reading →
One of the more philosophical concepts that astronomers have to deal with on an everyday basis is the commingling of space and time in astronomical images. The underlying idea is straightforward. The speed of light is finite. Light from a star or nebula or galaxy takes a measurable amount of time to cross the space... Continue Reading →
May 4th is celebrated as Star Wars Day across the internet. We who do "serious science" have always enjoyed the fictional universes of books and films, but the crossover to our work has generally been tangential. But not always! In December 2015, our news team jumped on the bandwagon and released an image with the... Continue Reading →
Each year, we celebrate the April 24, 1990, launch of the Hubble Space Telescope with a special observation. This year, for the 29th Anniversary, we wanted to highlight the combination of imaging and spectroscopy that underlies the astronomical research results. The target chosen to illustrate these ideas is the Southern Crab Nebula. This symmetric gas... Continue Reading →
