Hubblecast

This visualisation takes the viewer on a breathtaking flight through the Orion Nebula, a nearby star-forming region. The video has been produced using scientific imagery and data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. As the camera flies into the nebula, the viewer sweeps past newborn stars, smouldering clouds heated by intense radiation, and tadpole-shaped gaseous envelopes surrounding protoplanetary disks. A glowing gaseous landscape is revealed, that has been illuminated and carved by the high-energy radiation and strong stellar winds from the massive hot stars in the central cluster.

Our eyes detect only visible light, but on board Hubble are a variety of instruments that together detect many different wavelengths of light. This means that Hubble is able to observe galaxies over a wide range of wavelengths to reveal features that would otherwise remain invisible to our eyes. This episode of the Hubblecast explores the meaning of the colours in the spiral galaxy NGC 3344.

Astronomers have used Hubble to make an incredible discovery — they have observed the most distant star ever seen. The bright blue star existed only 4.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This incredible distant star allows astronomers to learn more about the formation and evolution of stars in the early Universe.

On 24 April 1990, Hubble was launched into space. To celebrate its 28th year in orbit, some of Hubble’s precious observation time was used to observe the colourful Lagoon Nebula. One of only two star-forming nebulae visible to the unaided eye, this spectacular stellar nursery is not quite the tranquil landscape its name suggests. This new Hubblecast explores the image in more detail and shows some of the delicate features of this cosmic lagoon.

An international team of astronomers using Hubble has made the most precise test of general relativity yet outside our Milky Way. A nearby galaxy acts as a strong gravitational lens, distorting light from a distant galaxy behind it to create an Einstein ring around its centre. By comparing the mass of the lensing galaxy with the curvature of space around it, the astronomers found that gravity on these astronomical length-scales behaves as predicted by general relativity.

Astronomers have found that ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, is moving away from the Sun faster than expected. Using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in cooperation with ground-based telescopes, a team of researchers concluded that ‘Oumuamua is most likely outgassing — suggesting that this enigmatic interstellar nomad is a peculiar comet rather than an asteroid.

Mars and Saturn are among the most popular planets. This new episode of the Hubblecast presents the images Hubble took of these planets in summer 2018.

This new Hubblecast episode features the story of Nancy Roman and her role in forging the path of one of the greatest scientific instruments in modern history.

This new Hubblecast episode takes a detailed look into the refined Pointing Control System that allows Hubble to keep its gaze into the Universe firm and steady.