Black Hole Week 2024

A massive spiral galaxy fills the image. A bright, yellow galactic core glows at the center, surrounded by spiral arms studded with pink stars and dark lanes of dust.

Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole

Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new Hubble image of NGC 4951.

The field is filled with stars against a black background. Stars are more dense at image center and taper off toward the edges. Star colors are mainly white and blue-white with a smattering of large, orangish stars.

Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole

Astronomers using Hubble have evidence for the presence of a rare "intermediate-sized" black hole that may be lurking in the heart of the closest globular star cluster to Earth.

A bright ball of stars, gas, and dust is the elliptical galaxy M87. Its core is brighter and fades with distance. A bright jet of material extends from the core. Title text: Hubble's Inside the Image: M87 Jet

Hubble's Inside the Image: M87 Jet Video

M87, a massive elliptical galaxy, is famous for its prominent jet of high-energy particles and radiation that extends for thousands of light-years from its supermassive black hole.

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Active Galaxy Centaurus A

At just over 11 million light-years away, Centaurus A holds the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. At its center is a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space.

Hubble Science: Monster Black Holes are Everywhere

Hubble found that supermassive black holes lie at the heart of nearly every galaxy.

Before Hubble, astronomers theorized the existence of supermassive black holes, but they had no conclusive evidence.

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Computer simulation of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. Center is a black circle. Surrounding the black circle are arcs of red, blue, orange, and white. Further out from the circle are blotches of red, blue, orange, and white representing celestial objects.

This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, where no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as the stars skim by the black hole.

NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI)

Learn how we make these beautiful images from Hubble data.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Miranda Chabot

Explore More Hubble

Hubble orbiting above Earth. Earth's blue sky and oceans along with its white clouds are the backdrop to Hubble/

Hubble Space Telescope

In its more than three decades of discovery, Hubble has changed our understanding of the universe. Explore Hubble's recent scientific discoveries, gorgeous new images; latest videos and features!

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Illustration Title: "The Lost Universe" in yellow at the top of the page. A green, yellow, and beige dragon is wrapped around an illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope. The image background is in various shades of blue and black and depicts a dark forest with trees in black silhouette.

Hubble Online Activities

Take interactive tours of Hubble facilities, discover what Hubble is currently observing, explore Hubble's Skymap, play games, and more.

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An oval of colorful tendrils of gas and dust stretching from lower-left to upper right. Ova's outer ring is rusty-red tendrils, followed by a yellow/lime-green ring of tendrils. Oval's center is bright turquoise with white tendrils bisecting it. All set on a black background.

Explore the Night Sky

Your backyard telescope or binoculars may not have Hubble's capabilities, but you can still see some of the same celestial objects Hubble has observed. Use our star charts to find these objects then compare what you see with the images Hubble has taken.

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Hubble E-books

Investigate the mysteries of the universe with Hubble. Explore Hubble's history, or its discoveries in the solar system, galaxies, exoplanets, stars, and the dark universe.

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Bright star amid swirls of clouds illuminated by the star. Black background dotted with stars.

Hubble Science Highlights

Learn about monster black holes, exoplanets, the runaway universe, and other Hubble discoveries.

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One astronaut holds to a yellow handrail on the Hubble telescope while another, perched on the shuttle's robotic arm, examines a drill-like power tool.

Hubble Servicing Missions

Hubble is the first observatory specifically designed for servicing by astronauts in space. Its modular components enabled upgrades that took advantage of advancements in technology.

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