#Hubble Space Telescope

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12 Great Gifts from Astronomy

This is a season where our thoughts turn to others and many exchange gifts with friends and family. For astronomers, our universe is the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve learned so much about it, but every question we answer leads to new things we want to know. Stars, galaxies, planets, black holes … there are endless wonders to study.

In honor of this time of year, let’s count our way through some of our favorite gifts from astronomy.

Our first astronomical gift is … one planet Earth

So far, there is only one planet that we’ve found that has everything needed to support life as we know it — Earth. Even though we’ve discovered over 5,200 planets outside our solar system, none are quite like home. But the search continues with the help of missions like our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). And even you (yes, you!) can help in the search with citizen science programs like Planet Hunters TESS and Backyard Worlds.

Our second astronomical gift is … two giant bubbles

Astronomers found out that our Milky Way galaxy is blowing bubbles — two of them! Each bubble is about 25,000 light-years tall and glows in gamma rays. Scientists using data from our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered these structures in 2010, and we're still learning about them.

Our third astronomical gift is … three types of black holes

Most black holes fit into two size categories: stellar-mass goes up to hundreds of Suns, and supermassive starts at hundreds of thousands of Suns. But what happens between those two? Where are the midsize ones? With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, scientists found the best evidence yet for that third, in between type that we call intermediate-mass black holes. The masses of these black holes should range from around a hundred to hundreds of thousands of times the Sun’s mass. The hunt continues for these elusive black holes.

Our fourth and fifth astronomical gifts are … Stephan’s Quintet

When looking at this stunning image of Stephan’s Quintet from our James Webb Space Telescope, it seems like five galaxies are hanging around one another — but did you know that one of the galaxies is much closer than the others? Four of the five galaxies are hanging out together about 290 million light-years away, but the fifth and leftmost galaxy in the image below — called NGC 7320 — is actually closer to Earth at just 40 million light-years away.

Our sixth astronomical gift is … an eclipsing six-star system

Astronomers found a six-star system where all of the stars undergo eclipses, using data from our TESS mission, a supercomputer, and automated eclipse-identifying software. The system, called TYC 7037-89-1, is located 1,900 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus and the first of its kind we’ve found.

Our seventh astronomical gift is … seven Earth-sized planets

In 2017, our now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope helped find seven Earth-size planets around TRAPPIST-1. It remains the largest batch of Earth-size worlds found around a single star and the most rocky planets found in one star’s habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on a planet’s surface.

Further research has helped us understand the planets’ densities, atmospheres, and more!

Our eighth astronomical gift is … an (almost) eight-foot mirror

The primary mirror on our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is approximately eight feet in diameter, similar to our Hubble Space Telescope. But Roman can survey large regions of the sky over 1,000 times faster, allowing it to hunt for thousands of exoplanets and measure light from a billion galaxies.

Our ninth astronomical gift is … a kilonova nine days later

In 2017, the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo detected gravitational waves from a pair of colliding neutron stars. Less than two seconds later, our telescopes detected a burst of gamma rays from the same event. It was the first time light and gravitational waves were seen from the same cosmic source. But then nine days later, astronomers saw X-ray light produced in jets in the collision’s aftermath. This later emission is called a kilonova, and it helped astronomers understand what the slower-moving material is made of.

Our tenth astronomical gift is … NuSTAR’s ten-meter-long mast

Our NuSTAR X-ray observatory is the first space telescope able to focus on high-energy X-rays. Its ten-meter-long (33 foot) mast, which deployed shortly after launch, puts NuSTAR’s detectors at the perfect distance from its reflective optics to focus X-rays. NuSTAR recently celebrated 10 years since its launch in 2012.

Our eleventh astronomical gift is … eleven days of observations

How long did our Hubble Space Telescope stare at a seemingly empty patch of sky to discover it was full of thousands of faint galaxies? More than 11 days of observations came together to capture this amazing image — that’s about 1 million seconds spread over 400 orbits around Earth!

Our twelfth astronomical gift is … a twelve-kilometer radius

Pulsars are collapsed stellar cores that pack the mass of our Sun into a whirling city-sized ball, compressing matter to its limits. Our NICER telescope aboard the International Space Station helped us precisely measure one called J0030 and found it had a radius of about twelve kilometers — roughly the size of Chicago! This discovery has expanded our understanding of pulsars with the most precise and reliable size measurements of any to date.

Stay tuned to NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with what’s going on in the cosmos every day. You can learn more about the universe here.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

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Jupiter in Ultraviolet from ESA/Hubble

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Close up of Pluto from the New Horizons space probe.

Will be adding several more photos to this same post

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Aurora on Saturn's south pole.

Instagram: nasahubble

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Aurora Borealis on Saturn captured by the Hubble Space Telescope

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this view of nearly 10,000 galaxies was the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos, it shows a deep core sample of the universe. the total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between sept. 24, 2003 and jan. 16, 2004.

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The Butterfly Nebula (HST)

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Aurora Borealis on Saturn captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. 🪐

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i've been doing an astronomy internship this summer, and we recently talked about the space telescopes! wanted to personify some of them hehe.

James Webb (they/them): Their shiny poncho thing is inspired by the solar shield. They have a rivalry with Hubble, believing him to be obsolete. However, they secretly are worried they won't be able to live up to his legacy.

Hubble (he/him): His glasses represent the COSTAR instrument that was installed on Hubble to correct it's blurry images. He finds James Webb's attempt at a rivalry amusing, and just wants to become friends with the younger fella and help them out.

Nancy Grace Roman (she/her): A telescope not yet launched, she's an old NRO telescope, and is having trouble adjusting from a life of espionage to one of science.

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From the depths of the ocean to the most distant galaxies, we’re all connected! 💫 💙

Recently, @montereybayaquarium Executive Director Julie Packard and Space Telescope Science Institute Director Dr. Jennifer M. Lotz were honored with 2024 Clarke Foundation awards.

In celebration, the Aquarium has partnered with STScI to bring you images from outer space and Earth’s life-giving ocean. It’s in moments like these that we can pause to appreciate and be in awe of the world we live in. As John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts wrote in “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”: “It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.” ✨

Credit: NASA,ESA, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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At 70 million light-years away, Galaxy NGC 2146

[theofficialastronomy101]

Think we're the only planet with life? 350mp quality. Remember to download to your phone and zoom in. Gets even more beautiful. Yes this is a nebula, yes I know there’s no life in a nebula. Of course these are not real photos. Duh!

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The "Sombrero Galaxy" as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The "Sombrero Galaxy" as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

[tenkuu-otoshi]

Beautifully Real Image of Saturn, in infrared.