This is a list of images released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's anniversaries. They celebrate its "birthday" when it was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, by the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery.[1]

15th (2005)

The 15th anniversary, in 2005, was celebrated with a collection of images of M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), and also with a section of the Eagle nebula.[2] The 15th anniversary included a collection of other content including, in multiple languages, the video release, Hubble — 15 Years of Discovery.[3]

15th anniversary image - 2005 – M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, including NGC 5194 and NGC 5195.[2]

17th (2007)

The 17th-anniversary celebration featured a panorama of part of the Carina Nebula, and a collection of images selected from that area.[4]

In its 17 years of exploring the heavens, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made nearly 800,000 observations and snapped nearly 500,000 images of more than 25,000 celestial objects. Hubble does not travel to stars, planets and galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. In its 17-year lifetime, the telescope has made nearly 100,000 trips around our planet.

— 17th Anniversary Press release[4]
17th anniversary image - 2007 – part of the Carina Nebula including the star system WR 22 and open cluster (stars) Trumpler 14

18th (2008)

59 images of merging galaxies were released for the 18th anniversary on 24 April 2008. [5]

19th (2009)

19th anniversary image - 2009 – Arp 194[6]

20th (2010)

20th anniversary image - 2010 – 'Mystic Mountain' in Carina nebula[7]

21st (2011)

21st anniversary image - 2011 – Arp 273, which is UGC 1810 and UGC 1813, called a "rose" of galaxies in this release.[8]

22nd (2012)

22nd anniversary image - 2012 – 30 Doradus in Tarantula Nebula[9]

23rd (2013)

23rd anniversary image - 2013 – Horsehead nebula in infrared light[9]

24th (2014)

24th anniversary image - 2014 – A set of Infrared images of Monkey Head Nebula incl. NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252[10]

25th (2015)

25th anniversary image - April 2015 – Westerlund 2[11]

26th (2016)

26th anniversary image - April 2016 – the Bubble nebula[12]

27th (2017)

27th anniversary image - April 2017 – Interacting galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298[13]

28th (2018)

28th anniversary image - April 2018 – A portion of the Lagoon nebula[14]

29th (2019)

In April 2019, a special celebration image of the Southern Crab Nebula (aka Hen 2-104) was released.[15] This nebula is located in the Constellation Centaurus.[15]

29th anniversary image - April 2019 – The southern Crab nebula[16]

30th (2020)

30th anniversary image - April 2020 – The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.[17]

31st (2021)

31st anniversary image - April 2021 – The Image shows AG Carinae waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction.[18]

32nd (2022)

32nd anniversary image - April 2022 – The Image shows an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called The Hickson Compact Group 40. Three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.[19]

33rd (2023)

33rd anniversary image - April 2023 - This image shows nearby star-forming region, NGC 1333.[20]


See also

References

  1. ^ "Hubble Sees a Horsehead of a Different Color | NASA". nasa.gov. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  2. ^ a b "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble celebrates 15th anniversary with spectacular new images (25 April 2005) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  3. ^ "ESA/Hubble".
  4. ^ a b "Hubble's 17th anniversary - extreme star birth in the Carina Nebula".
  5. ^ "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Cosmic Collisions Galore! (04/24/2008) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  6. ^ "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble Celebrates Its 19th Anniversary with a "Fountain of Youth" (04/21/2009) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  7. ^ "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Starry-Eyed Hubble Celebrates 20 Years of Awe and Discovery (04/22/2010) - Introduction". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  8. ^ "NASA - NASA's Hubble Celebrates 21st Anniversary with 'Rose' of Galaxies". nasa.gov. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  9. ^ a b "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble's 22nd Anniversary Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region (04/17/2012) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  10. ^ Northon, Karen (2014-03-17). "Hubble Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Infrared Image of Nearby Star Factory". NASA. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  11. ^ "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 25 Years of Unveiling the Universe (04/23/2015) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  12. ^ "Hubble captures birthday bubble | ESA/Hubble". spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  13. ^ "Hubble celebrates 27 years with two close friends". www.spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  14. ^ "Hubble's 28th birthday picture: The Lagoon Nebula". European Space Agency. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  15. ^ a b "Hubble Celebrates 29th Anniversary with the Southern Crab Nebula". 18 April 2019.
  16. ^ "The Crab of the Southern Sky". space telescope.orgI. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  17. ^ Belleville, Michelle (2019-12-19). "Hubble's 30th Anniversary". NASA. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
  18. ^ Jenner, Lynn (2021-04-23). "Hubble Captures Giant Star on the Edge of Destruction". NASA. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
  19. ^ Gianopoulos, Andrea (2022-04-19). "Celebrating Hubble's 32nd Birthday with an Eclectic Galaxy Grouping". NASA. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  20. ^ "Hubble celebrates its 33rd anniversary with NGC 1333". ESA. 2023-04-21.
Categories