Between 1990 and 2003, NASA scientists launched a series of technologically advanced telescopes into space. Dubbed the Great Observatories, these four astronomical telescopes were designed to observe areas of space with equipment that could monitor the range of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum.
The first of those telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, is perhaps the most famous of the bunch. (The other three are the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.) For one thing, it alone among the group can be actively maintained in space by astronauts.
It has also been the source of breakthrough discoveries about black holes, helped scientists learn more about the age and expansion of the universe, and provided unprecedented detail about the features of various objects in our own solar system.
As the Hubble Space Telescope turns 32 on April 24th, 2022, it is a fitting moment to reflect on some of its most breathtaking finds.
The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8 000 light-years away. (NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team)
1The Bubble Nebula
When the Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 26th anniversary during the historic year of 2016, it managed to capture an image that seemed right out of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Known as the Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635, it is an emission nebula located 8 000 light-years away; emission nebulas are interstellar clouds which are comprised of ionized gases. These, in turn, produce light in various wavelengths, all of which can show up in this image in a particularly beautiful way.
NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. (NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))
2Galaxy NGC1300
Astronomers have long struggled with the fact that, despite advances in optical technology, you can really only see so much from the ground. The Hubble Space Telescope, freed from the tethers of gravity and the blurriness of the atmosphere, can produce images of especial clarity. This one is of a galaxy similar to our own. Galaxy NGC1300 is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning that it is shaped with a spiral but has a bar-like structure at its core composed of stars. We live in a barred spiral galaxy of our own, the Milky Way Galaxy, where our solar system is located, but because we are stuck inside it, we’ll never get a great look at our own. This image might be relatively close to what it would look like if we could somehow look at the galaxy as reflected through a giant mirror.
This image shows the pillars as seen in visible light, capturing the multi-coloured glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-coloured elephants’ trunks of the nebula’s famous pillars. (NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team)
3The Pillars of Creation
This is one of the most famous of the Hubble Space Telescope’s images, and for a good reason. The Pillars of Creation exist in the Eagle Nebula (part of our Milky Way Galaxy) and is comprised of interstellar dust and gas. They are magnificent not only because of their murky and otherworldly beauty, but because they are literally stars being born. The Hubble has been able to monitor how these structures have evolved over time, to the fascination of astronomers. It is one of the most famous Hubble images ever, and is often printed on posters and fine art prints. The processing of the photo also helped restore the telescope’s image in the public eye after the public lost faith in the expensive project due to its cost and expensive repair mission in 1993. This was the first major photograph to come out after the repairs, and as an astronomer who worked there at the time later recalled, “I think for the public, there was the realization that, ‘Wow, Hubble really has been fixed’ and ‘Wow, look what Hubble can show us.'”
This image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 25 August 2020, was captured when the planet was 653 million kilometers from Earth. (NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.)
4Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, but is also believed because of the swirling gases once can see churning at the top of its atmosphere. The most famous structure of all is, of course, the Great Red Spot, which is 40 times as deep as the Mariana Trench (the deepest point on Earth). This photograph was captured by the telescope in August 2020, when Jupiter was 653 million kilometers from Earth. Even more fascinating, you can spot the Jovian moon Europa in the background on the left side. Scientists believe that Europa, with its briny surface, could potentially harbor life.
The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. (NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))
5The Sombrero Galaxy
The so-called Sombrero Galaxy earned its cheerful moniker by resembling the famous wide-brimmed Mexican hat. Officially given the much less exciting name of Galaxy NGC 4594, this galaxy exists in the constellation Virgo roughly 28 million light-years from Earth. The halo surrounding it is comprised of dust, and this particular 2017 image is noteworthy because it is also one of the largest mosaics ever created based on Hubble images.
Galaxy UGC 2885 may be the largest one in the local universe. (NASA, ESA, and B. Holwerda (University of Louisville))
6Giant Galaxy UGC 2885
Giant galaxy UGC 2885 is notable because, as its name indicates, it may very well be the largest known galaxy in the local universe. It is also a barred spiral galaxy, located in the Perseus constellation, and contains 10 times as many stars as our own galaxy. At the same time, it is relatively inactive compared to other galaxies, only producing new stars at roughly half the rate as new stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Thanks to the Hubble telescope, scientists learned that this galaxy has a small bar in the ring structure of its core. As a result, its classification was changed from unbarred spiral galaxy to barred spiral galaxy.
The Crab Nebula is among the most interesting and well studied objects in astronomy.(NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble))
7The Crab Nebula
In the 19th century, an English astronomer and aristocrat known as William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, spotted something in the Taurus constellation that reminded him of a crab. It turned out that what he observed was a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula, but the crab image clearly left a lasting impression. The so-called Crab Nebula has since become one of the most well-studied celestial objects in all of astronomy, and this image from the Hubble Space Telescope is the largest and most detailed ever captured of it. Yet despite all of their observational power, astronomers are still unsure of the nebula’s precise distance from Earth.
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. (NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team)
8Hubble Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field
We saved the best for last.
In 2003 and 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope stared at a region of space that appeared empty. Yet after a long exposure, Hubble revealed that the segment of space was far from it — rather, it was full of thousands of points and smears of light, all of which were entire galaxies with billions of stars.
This remarkable image, known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field took nearly four months to put together, from late 2003 to early 2004, and required 400 Hubble orbits around Earth to do the job. It includes almost 10,000 galaxies: The closest ones are well-defined ellipticals and spirals, while the more distant galaxies are red dots that could date back to earlier in the universe’s history (i.e., when it was roughly 800 million years old). It was the follow up to the Hubble Deep Field, a similar image with a shorter exposure which had been taken over a period of 10 days in 1995.
The Ultra Deep Field image may well be one of the most important images ever taken by humans. It illustrates the incredible vastness and size of our universe, and how even in the seemingly empty regions, there are actually trillions of stars. It is humbling to think that there is probably not merely one intelligent civilization like ours in that image, but perhaps hundreds or thousands.
“As the images have come up on our screens, we have not been able to keep from wondering if we might somehow be seeing our own origins in all of this,” Robert Williams, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland during this period, said at the time.
Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon’s weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
This image shows 
This image of 
The 
The 
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest 
