NASA released yet another stunning image captured by Hubble Space Telescope to celebrate its 28th anniversary. Here is a look back at Hubble's incredible journey and at some of its major contributions.
Happy Anniversary
A colorful image of the Lagoon nebula marked the celebration for Hubble Space Telescope's 28th year in space. Apart from its magnificent colors, the image also shows the giant star Herschel 36 as it blasts powerful ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds.
Though the nebula has been captured in many images before since it was cataloged in 1654, the image of star birth and destruction perfectly marks Hubble's long journey that has helped shape the human understanding of the universe.
Have you seen the beautiful new image of the Lagoon Nebula released for Hubble's 28th anniversary? Dive deeper with this stunning flythrough: https://t.co/DudLMOUxlq #Hubble28 pic.twitter.com/OlQYkteMXs — Hubble (@NASAHubble) April 20, 2018
Fast Facts
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, and it has since been an important tool in astronomy. In the 28 years of Hubble's journey, it has made over 1.5 million observations of over 40,000 celestial objects, over 160,000 trips around the Earth, produced over 150 terabytes of data that has been published in over 15,000 scientific papers.
It was a joint project by NASA and the ESA, and orbits some 340 miles above the surface of the Earth. It is fitted with sensitive cameras and spectrographs that allow it to view both nearby and distant celestial bodies.
The images taken by Hubble has not just helped shape the better understanding of the universe, but has also pulled public interest in astronomy and space exploration.
Runaway Universe And Other Hubble Highlights
One of Hubble's greatest discoveries concerns the entire universe, as its observations showed that the universe isn't just expanding, but also accelerating in pace. Evidently, a sort of "antigravity" dark energy is pulling galaxies apart at an increasing rate. Though there is still much to learn about this "runaway universe," the discovery is so valuable that it won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Hubble also assists Kepler Space Observatory in the hunt for habitable planets even if when it was launched in 1990, there were still no discoveries and observations of other planets beyond the solar system. In this matter, astronomers have used Hubble's observations to measure the atmospheric conditions of planets orbiting other stars. In fact, Hubble's observations have allowed astronomers to map out an entire exoplanet from its temperature, atmosphere, and the amount and distribution of water vapor.
Hubble's journey also provided ample evidence that most galaxies actually have black holes that often correspond in size to the size of its host galaxy, and it also gave a glimpse of both the birth and death of certain stars, capturing stunning images to match. Just recently, Hubble also captured what's called an "Einstein ring," and captured an image of the star Icarus, which is 9 billion light-years away from Earth.
Since its launch, Hubble has helped shape the human understanding of the universe and as it continues on its journey, it will surely continue to feed the minds and curiosities of the many who choose to look beyond the skies.
"From a science perspective, Hubble has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. It has allowed us to refine our knowledge in some areas and discovered things that we never knew existed," said Hubble deputy project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center, Jim Jeletic, in an exclusive statement to Tech Times.
