Hubble’s Cultural Impact

The World With Hubble

For over three decades, Hubble has been a part of our lives. It's hard to imagine a time when we didn't have the telescope's images to guide our imaginations through the cosmos. Ever since the telescope rocketed to the forefront of astronomical discovery with the dramatic mission to correct its blurred vision, Hubble and its observations have become cultural icons. Hubble's likeness and its images can be found on stamps, clothing, tattoos, art, album covers, and even in Hollywood blockbuster movies. Below are just a sampling of the hundreds of instances where Hubble has been used in pop culture.

Television and Movies

Hubble images have helped define the way people think of the universe, and they or the telescope itself often show up in the background of popular Hollywood television shows and movies. Hubble's view of the Eagle Nebula appeared in Amazon's streaming show "Good Omens" and its 30th anniversary science image of the Cosmic Reef was used in the movie "The Adam Project." The telescope's likeness was seen at the beginning of the movie "Gravity" and in the first episode of the series "Space Force." TV shows such as "Star Trek: Voyager" used its images as background details while "The Big Bang Theory" often had Hubble imagery and posters on the walls of its offices and apartments. The comedy series "Home Improvement" featured Hubble's Servicing Mission 1 astronauts and late night television also honored Hubble in an extended skit "Hubble Gotchu!" on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

The Hubble mission has also had several partnerships with IMAX movie producers. In 2004, The IMAX short film, "Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time," was created by the Hubble mission and played before feature IMAX movies. The movie transformed images and data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope into a voyage that sweept viewers across the cosmos. More than 11,000 galaxy images were extracted and assembled into an accurate 3-D model for the three-minute movie.

Leonardo Dicaprio in a sound room recording the narration for a Hubble movie. — Seven-time Academy-Award® nominee Leonardo DiCaprio records narration for the IMAX® 3D film, "Hubble 3D."
Warner Bros.

An audience in a theater watches a large format film showing galaxies. — An audience watches the IMAX short film, "Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time," featuring more than 11,000 galaxy images.
NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)

Hubble image of giant red nebula and smaller blue neighbor nebula (NGC 2014 and NGC 2020) — This Hubble image of a "cosmic reef" of gas, dust and stars was used as a background image in a college science lecture scene in the movie "The Adam Project."
NASA, ESA and STScI

A nebula with gas that is expelled left and right of a star and appears as exhausts from two jet engines. — In this picture of M2-9, twin lobes of material emanate from a central, dying star. Astronomers have dubbed this object the "Twin Jet Nebula" because of the shape of the lobes. This Hubble image appears in the "Star Trek: Voyager" series on a wall in the astrometric laboratory along with Hubble’s image of the Ring Nebula.
Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASA

Black background holding an oval of light. The outer ring of the oval is orange-red. Moving inward the ring is more greenish-yellow. The center of the ring is bright blue with one small star at its center and another above and to the right of it. — M57, or the Ring Nebula, had a prominent location on the walls of an apartment in "The Big Bang Theory" series and also put in an appearance in "Strar Trek" Voyager."
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

An orange and brown pillar of gas and dust rears up against a blue background dotted with pinkish stars. The pillar is brighter and more distinct toward the top and dimmer and more diffuse toward the bottom. Gas is streaming off the top of the pillar. — This pillar of gas and dust in the Carina Nebula was one of over a dozen Hubble images used in the skit “Hubble Gotchu” on the "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" show.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

NASA, IMAX, and Warner Bros. Pictures partnered in 2009 for the final Hubble servicing mission with the IMAX 3D camera mounted in the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis. The result was the IMAX movie "Hubble 3D" that takes visitors with the astronauts as they prepare Hubble for its final journey. However, this was not the first time that an IMAX camera and Hubble hooked up in space. A camera also captured Hubble's initial deployment in 1990 on the STS-31 shuttle mission. That footage was featured in the 1994 IMAX movie "Destiny in Space," narrated by Leonard Nimoy.

An astonaut works on the Hubble Space Telescope above the Earth as seen from a fish eye camera. — Filmed with the IMAX® 3D Cargo Bay Camera, astronaut John Grunsfeld, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis’ robotic arm, and astronaut Andrew Feustel replace a Fine Guidance Sensor in the Hubble servicing mission’s fifth and final spacewalk.
NASA

Astronaut Mike Massimino being interviewed by a reporter. — Hubble astronaut Mike Massimino speaks to a reporter on the red carpet prior to the world premiere of "Hubble 3D," screened at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
NASA / Paul E. Alers

An audience of movie watchers wearing 3D glasses.

Moviegoers wear 3D glasses as they watch the world premiere of "Hubble 3D" at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

NASA / Paul E. Alers

Art

Hubble’s observations inspire both art and science around the globe. Its images have been incorporated and reconstituted into artworks, but also displayed as art in its own right in museums. At New York City’s American Museum of Natural History, spectra of distant galaxies taken by Hubble were projected on the Hayden Sphere within the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Similar outdoor exhibits appeared in Baltimore, Maryland, and Venice, Italy.

Art exhibits of Hubble images have also been showcased at such venues as the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, and the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice, Italy. The Artechhouse, a digital art gallery with locations that include Washington, DC and New York City, has produced a 3D immersive exhibit on the artistic expression of scientific discoveries, including those of Hubble.

Hubble images are suspended between stone arches and hanging over classical marble busts at an art museum. A Hubble model is displayed among the statues. — "The Hubble Space Telescope: Twenty Years at the Frontier of Science" exhibition appeared at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice, Italy. Exhibits included photos taken over the years by the observatory, as well as artifacts from the telescope and tools used by astronomers in their missions to repair and upgrade it.
Bob Fosbury

A jagged green line of laser light, resembling an EKG, plays across the face of a yellow and white building on the Venice canals at night. — The laser installation "From the Distant Past: Decoding the Light of Hubble" by artist Tim Otto Roth projects across Venice’s Palazzo Franchetti. While the scanning green laser might appear abstract, it is based on Hubble observations of distant galaxies.
Bob Fosbury

People sit and stand at an art exhibit in a dark room surrounded by tall projected Hubble images. — The ARTECHOUSE has taken Hubble images and created Hubble Flythrough scenes as part of its exhibition, "Beyond the Light."
"Beyond the Light" by ARTECHOUSE Studio, (in collaboration with NASA) at ARTECHOUSE NYC

Hubble images are mounted on the wall over sculptures and between classical pillars at the Walters Art Musuem. — "Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope," brought together over 20 Hubble images as part of the Baltimore, MD, Walters Art Museum exhibit "Maps: Finding Our Place in the World." The exhibit was created through a unique collaboration between the Walters, scientists, experts at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and students at Johns Hopkins University.
NASA, ESA, The Walters Art Museum, Zolt G. Levay (STScI)

A jagged, EKG-like spectra line from the Hubble Space Telescope is projected onto a large sphere seen through a windowed wall at Hayden Planetarium — Bright green waves of laser light rippled across the Hayden Planetarium sphere in the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, illustrating how the Hubble Space Telescope analyzes distant galaxies, quasars, and other celestial objects in the universe. The public art installation, "From the Distant Past: Decoding the Light of Hubble," was presented in connection with the opening of the Museum’s special exhibition "Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration."
© AMMH/D. Finnin

The Hubble Space Telescope spectra laser display, "From the Distant Past," was displayed at Hayden Planetarium in New York City in 2011

AMMH/D. Finnin

Music

Hubble has inspired musicians who base works on its images and the sense of wonder it evokes. Hubble has given rise to both individual songs and larger works, such as the symphonic "Deep Field," by Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, performed by UK's Royal Philharmonic as well as by symphonies around the US. "The Hubble Cantata," a blend of imagery, art and narration by composer Paola Prestini has been performed at multiple venues, including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, and the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles.

Composer Henry Dehlinger’s "Cosmic Cycles," a symphonic suite played live against the backdrop of NASA images including Hubble pictures, has been performed by the DC-area National Philharmonic.

A large choir performs beneath a screen showing an image of the Hubble Space Telescope. It is night and the lit buildings of New York City are visible in the background. — A choir performs Eric Whitacre's Deep Field piece in Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City.
World Science Festival/Greg Kesler

“Cosmic Cycles: A Space Symphony” is a collaboration between composer Henry Dehlinger, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the National Philharmonic that features a fusion of music and video in seven multimedia works on the Sun, Earth, Moon, Planets, and Cosmos that includes Hubble imagery.
NASA / J. Jeletic

A conductor leads a choir on a darkened stage with a purple and orange cosmic nebula image hovering over the group and bathing then in its glow.

The Hubble Cantata by composer Paola Prestini is performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Magazines and Books

The Hubble observatory, its images, and its astronauts have frequently been featured on the covers of popular magazines including news periodicals (Time, Newsweek), technical publications and journals (National Geographic Magazine, Science, Nature, Discover), pop culture publications (Rolling Stone, Parade), and children's magazines like Boys Life. Hundreds of magazines from the United States and abroad have highlighted different aspects of the Hubble story featuring related images as the main cover.

Countless books have been written detailing the telescope’s discoveries, documenting its history, and providing photographic documentation of the people who make it happen. Often, coffee table books simply relay Hubble's images of the cosmos and their stunning beauty.

The cover and inside jacket of a Hubble history book named Not Yet Imagined" — "Not Yet Imagined" documents Hubble history from the telescope’s launch through its first 30 years, focusing on the interactions between astronomers, engineers, government officials, and public during that time. It chronicles the telescope's tumultuous beginnings, the decision-making behind the servicing missions, Hubble's contributions to our understanding of the universe, and how the telescope changed the course of astronomy.
NASA

A child's board book shows Hubble's image of the Tadpole Galaxy with a cartoon image of Star Trek's Enterprise flying away from them. On the right the text reads: "Would you like to continue the adventure and boldly go into SPACE?" — A child's Star Trek-themed board book features a Hubble image of the Tadpole Galaxy and its long tidal tail of stars.
Ben Bella Books

The cover of a national geographic book with Hubble's image of the Orion Nebula on it. — National Geographic has produced numerous books on Hubble and its images including this one that highlights the telescope's science and images.
Courtesy National Geographic. Photo Credit: NASA

Beautiful massive columns of dust and stars in deep space. — These towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas sit at the heart of M16, or the Eagle Nebula. Also known as the Pillars of Creation, this object has produced some of the most famous Hubble images produced and has graced the cover of numerous magazines, including Time, Astronomy, and Scientific America.
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Cover of National Geographic Magazine with Hubble nebula image on it.

Hubble's 7th anniversary was commemorated by the National Geographic Society in its April 1997 magazine.

National Geographic Society

The cover of Sky & Telescope magazine is filled with an image of the Butterfly Nebula

Hubble's image of the Butterfly Nebula was featurned on the November 2014 cover of Sky & Telescope magazine.

Sky & Telescope. Used with permission.

Around the US and Beyond

The instantly recognizable telescope has graced a state-themed US Mint collector’s coin and Hubble and its images have been featured on US postage stamps on multiple occasions. In fact, Hubble and Hubble images have been decorated stamps outside the US as well, in the Marshall Islands, the UK, Togo and Burundi.

A series of Hubble images were featured on US postage stamps in 2000.

NASA

A gold coin is stamped with an image of Hubble floaing over Earth.

Hubble was chosen for the US Mint's series of $1 American Innovation® coins.

NASA

Clothing

Hubble images are for more than posters and prints. Popular art marketplace sites are filled with designs that use Hubble images – on shirts, dresses, socks, shoes, ties, and almost every kind of accessory.

A woman's scarf based on a Hubble nebula image and a t-shirt with the spacecraft on it.

A scarf based on a Hubble nebula image and a t-shirt with an image of the spacecraft are two examples of the hundreds of clothing products based on the Hubble mission.

NASA GEWA Exchange

A bucket hat printed with stars and nebulae

Hubble Space Telescope imagery adorns a hat.

NASA GEWA Exchange

Unexpected Places

Hubble and its images appear in places where you wouldn’t expect them – from tattoos to stained glass windows in churches. A decades-long collaboration with LEGO has produced models of Hubble and a "Women of NASA" set that featured astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, known as the “Mother of Hubble.” From coffee mugs to the Google Doodle, Hubble pops up in surprising locations.

A lego model of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope configured for a servicing mission. — NASA and the LEGO Group have a long history of collaboration on projects that engage children and adults alike to encourage interest in STEM fields and space exploration. In 2021, an STS-31 mission kit, the Hubble Space Telescope deployment mission, included models of the Space Shuttle Discovery and Hubble. As seen here, one enthusiast took the models one step further and configured it for Hubble’s Servicing Mission 2, complete with cargo bay carriers.
NASA / J. Jeletic

An arm tattooed with a blueprint-like image of the Hubble Space telescope. — Hubble and its images have been the subject of tattoos.
NASA / P. Morris

A rental truck on a city street that has a Hubble Space Telescope painted on its side — The Hubble likeness has appeared on a vast array of objects in the public view, including this rental truck.
@Katrina13j

Hubble nebula image on a cell phone case — A Hubble nebula image decorates a cell phone case.
Twitter user @Rickman

Hubble and its images have been the subject of tattoos.

Paul Morris

An Icon Among Icons

The popularity of Hubble extends to athletes, actors, royalty, musicians, politicians, astronomers, and astronauts. Celebrities have participated in campaigns to wish the telescope a happy birthday, kings and queens have received Hubble images as gifts, and athletes and entertainers have toured Hubble’s facilities. People feel a connection to Hubble no matter where life has taken them.

Queen Elizabeth of England, wearing a yellow coat and yellow hat with pink flowers and seated next to Prince Phillip in a dark suit, is presented with a framed Hubble image featuring photographs of a cosmic object and the telescope by Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Steny Hoyer. — Queen Elizabeth II is presented with a framed photograph of the Hubble Space Telescope and its famous image of the Eagle Nebula by Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., during a visit to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The royal couple's appearance was one of the last stops on a six-day visit to the United States.
NASA/Paul E. Alers

Two astronauts in blue uniforms stand behind a simple model of the space shuttle that has a detailed model of the Hubble Space Telescope in its cargo bay. One holds the shuttle's model robotic arm.Prince Phillip stands to the left and points at the Hubble model. — Prince Philip tours Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland during a six-day visit to the US. Astronauts Megan McArthur and Scott Altman explain how they maneuver the robotic arm to service the Hubble Space Telescope during a servicing mission.
NASA/Chris Gunn

NBA star Jaylen Brown smiles in front of an infrared image of the Eagle Nebula showing a myraid of stars. — American professional basketball player Jaylen Brown learns about the wavelengths of light that Hubble can take pictures of while on a tour of the Hubble Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. While at Goddard, Brown gave a presentation about the importance of (science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) engagement with two members of the NASA team.
NASA

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (second from left) and members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences are led to the Hubble control center by Jim Jeletic, Hubble deputy project manager (far right), and Chris Scolese, Goddard center director (center). The group toured Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 3, 2017.
NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth

The Alan Parsons Live Project tours the Hubble control center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on November 17, 2018. The band teamed up with NASA to create a song in commemoration of the 50-year anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The song is titled "One Note Symphony," and NASA provided vintage footage from Apollo to be used in the music video.
NASA

Apollo 8 lunar module pilot Bill Anders (left) discusses the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image with Hubble Deputy Project Manager Jim Jeletic while touring the Hubble control center. The image is a view of about 10,000 galaxies and is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos.
NASA / W. Hrybyk

Senator Barbara Mikulski gestures as she speaks with a member of the Hubble flight operations team. He sits at a long desk with another team member. The desk is covered with computers, keyboards, stacks of paper bound together with o-rings so it can be flipped through easily, and a small Hubble model. Other figures are visible in the background, including someone holding a boom mic to capture their interaction. — During Servicing Mission 4, Sen. Barbara Mikulski talks with Michael Prior, Hubble Space Telescope operations manager, while visiting the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Mikulski was a long-time advocate for the Hubble telescope.
NASA/Pat Izzo

American film, stage, and television actor Connor Trinneer examines a pistol grip tool demonstrated by Hubble engineer Justin Cassidy, who designs and builds such tools, Trinneer, known for playing Charles "Trip" Tucker in "Star Trek: Enterprise" toured Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on July 7, 2006.
NASA

Nancy Grace Roman in a blue outfit and glasses smiles as she sits in a chair in the Hubble control room in front of desks full of computers with screens showing Hubble data. — Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman awaits an in-depth interview on her life and career in the control center for the telescope that she helped usher into being, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA/J. Jeletic

Kyle White in a dark suit gazes through a lit display case at Hubble hardware. An image of one of Hubble's deep fields, filled with stars and galaxies, is the backdrop for the case. — Medal of Honor recipient Kyle White tours Hubble's control center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 21, 2015. White spoke at Goddard in honor of Memorial Day and was the first Medal of Honor recipient to speak at Goddard.
NASA

Actor Josh Peck in a t-shirt and baseball hat points into a camera operated by producer Paul Morris while delivering a birthday message. Morris is in the foreground, behind the camera, and Peck is positioned in front of a large model of the Hubble Telescope. — American actor and comedian Josh Peck films a happy birthday message for the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with Hubble video producer Paul Morris while at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on September 5, 2019.
NASA

The evidence of Hubble's impact on the world – its art, its music, the very way we imagine the universe – is all around us. For more than 30 years, the telescope has been humanity's guide through the cosmos, revealing regions of the heavens in glorious detail. It has been an inspiration to millions, and one of its most lasting legacies may be the excitement and enthusiasm for space that it has kindled in the hearts of people who have grown up seeing Hubble images, the generations of dreamers whose eyes have been opened to the possibilities and promise of scientific exploration.

American professional basketball player Jaylen Brown learns about the wavelengths of light that Hubble can take pictures of while on a tour of the Hubble Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. While at Goddard, Brown gave a presentation about the importance of (science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) engagement with two members of the NASA team: engineer Kenny Harris and solar scientist Yari Collado-Vega.

NASA

Cultural Impact

The Universe Brought to Earth

Hubble launched with a list of science goals that it would accomplish, one by one, but one of its greatest accomplishments was riveting the world's attention on astronomical discovery.

Hubble's stunning images paired with the rise of the internet turned the observatory into the first celebrity telescope. People around the globe felt a personal connection to Hubble.

Learn More

Hundreds of galaxies of all shapes and sizes shining against the dark background of space.

Another iconic Hubble image, the Hubble Deep Field, features thousands of galaxies reaching back in space and time and has been a favorite of the public since its release in 1995.

NASA

Cultural Impact

Comeback Story

Everyone loves an underdog – and Hubble's triumphant rise to become the world's most beloved telescope after its shaky beginning was a riveting transformation, complete a with high-stakes mission.

After Hubble's launch in 1990, it quickly became obvious that something was wrong. Hubble's primary mirror had been ground to the incorrect shape. The difference was less than the width of a human hair – but that was still enough to blur the telescope's images.

Learn More

Astronaut in a white space suit tethered to the Hubble Space Telescope floating in space.

Steven L. Smith, payload commander for Hubble's Servicing Mission 3A, waves to a crewmate located inside the Space Shuttle Discovery's cabin during the first spacewalk of the mission. Hubble servicing missions and the subsequent upgrades to the telescope have been avidly followed by the public.

NASA

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Hubble's Cultural Impact

The World With Hubble

Television and Movies

Art

Music

Magazines and Books

Around the US and Beyond

Clothing

Unexpected Places

An Icon Among Icons

Cultural Impact

The Universe Brought to Earth

Cultural Impact

Comeback Story

Want more Hubble?

Hubble Astronaut Fun Facts

Control Center 360º Tour

Explore Light

Follow NASA

Hubble's Cultural Impact

The World With Hubble

Television and Movies

Art

Music

Magazines and Books

Around the US and Beyond

Clothing

Unexpected Places

An Icon Among Icons

Cultural Impact

The Universe Brought to Earth

Cultural Impact

Comeback Story

Want more Hubble?

Hubble Astronaut Fun Facts

Control Center 360º Tour

Explore Light

Explore More

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