NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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Image: The Hubble Space Telescope hangs above Earth in this photo taken by a NASA astronaut during one of the Hubble Servicing Missions.
Hubble at 25: The Space Telescope by the Numbers: Photos
Image: The Hubble Space Telescope hangs above Earth in this photo taken by a NASA astronaut during one of the Hubble Servicing Missions. Source
NASA (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: This famous observation of the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina, shows a beautiful and dramatic star-forming region. The image celebrated the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth in 2010. Source
NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI) (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: NASA astronaut Michael Good, STS-125 mission specialist, is seen from an aft flight deck window on the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the mission's second session of extravehicular activity (EVA) during the 2009 Hubble servicing mission. Fellow NASA astronaut Megan McArthur's reflection is also in shot. Source
NASA (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: This observation by Hubble shows a new view of an old classic: The Horsehead Nebula. Souce
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: The dazzling Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors, dazzles in this detailed observation by Hubble. Source
NASA, ESA, CXC and the University of Potsdam, JPL-Caltech, and STScI (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details in the Ring Nebula. Source
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
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Image: A view of the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting over South America. Source MORE: Hubble at 25: Brief History of the Hubble Space Telescope
NASA (edit by Ian O'Neill/Discovery News).
These beautiful, shimmering tendrils of plasma are all that remain of an ancient massive star that, approximately 8,000 years ago, died and exploded as a supernova. This zoomed-in section of the Veil Nebula has just been released by the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing the intricate beauty that’s left in the wake of one of the most violent events in the universe.
The Veil Nebula is one of the best known supernova remnants in the sky, featuring vast wispy structures of hot plasma some 110 light-years across. The nebula is located around 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.
Vast as it may be, this new observation features 6 images stitched together as a mosaic, only spanning 2 light-years, providing a very detailed look at the innermost detail of this fascinating object.
The Veil’s brightest components are caused by the ancient supernova’s shock wave that is traveling through interstellar space, blasting into the edge of a cavity, or bubble, etched out into a region of cool interstellar gas. Viewed edge-on, the crumpled structure of the expanding bubble’s leading edge glows in a range of vivid colors, heated by the interaction between the shock waves and cavity gas.
Left: This is a sky survey image of the Veil Nebula, a 110-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star that exploded about 8,000 years ago in the constellation Cygnus. Center: This is a ground-based telescope image of a 15-light-year-long stretch of the eastern portion of the nebula. Right: This image shows a two-light-year-wide segment of the remnant as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble resolves tangled rope-like filaments of glowing gases.
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Digitized Sky Survey ((DSS) STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, and UKSTU/AAO), and T.A. Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage) and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF
These colors represent the superheated glow of various different gases in the cavity wall — red is the glow of hydrogen; green is sulfur; blue is oxygen. The less defined, more diffuse glow is caused by cooler gases that was heated by the traveling shock wave in the past.
Besides being a beautiful image, observations of the Veil are of huge scientific value. First observed by Hubble in 1997, astronomers are currently comparing past and present images of the nebula’s stucture to see how it has changed over the past couple of decades, perhaps revealing some of the short-term dynamics of a nebula formed in the wake of a cataclysmic explosion.
Source: HubbleSite.org