Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble view of an expanding halo of light around star v838 monocerotis — This Hubble Space Telescope image of the star V838 Monocerotis reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, unveiled never-before-seen dust patterns when the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Hubble image left to right: Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune — The Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project is an observing program of the Hubble Space Telescope. OPAL makes yearly observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to understand their atmospheric dynamics and evolution over time. Using Hubble, OPAL astronomers regularly measure and monitor features on each of these giant gas planets.
NASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), and M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: J. DePasquale and A. Pagan (STScI)

Field is filled with galaxies in colors of white, yellow, blue-white, and red; all on a black background. — Approximately 10,000 galaxies fill a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Created through the collaboration of 20 astronomers and scientists, this is the deepest image of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths.
NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith and the HUDF Team (STScI), and B. Mobasher (STScI)

Hubble images of Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation — The Hubble Space Telescope is equipped to take images in various wavelengths of light in order to provide more insight into its targets. The famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula (also known as M16: the 16th object in Charles Messier’s catalog) were imaged using both visible (left) and infrared (right) filters. Using infrared light, Hubble is able to probe past the dense gas and dust of the nebula to reveal stars that are hidden in visible wavelengths.
NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team

Three views of Pluto. Three mottled circles in colors of yellow, grey, rusty-orange, and black. — Constructed from multiple Hubble photographs taken from 2002 to 2003, it took 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously four years to accomplish this end product.
NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)

Hubble observations of Carina Nebula section — Dubbed “Mystic Mountain,” this is a region of the much more extensive Carina Nebula. In it, towers of cool hydrogen gas laced with dust are seen to rise along the nebula’s wall. At the top, a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust is being eaten away by the brilliant light and winds from nearby stars. The pillar is also being pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming left and right from the tips of the peaks.
NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

Hubble image of NGC 1300 — Astronomers classify galaxy NGC 1300 as a barred spiral because its arms do not swirl into the center but instead are connected to ends of a straight bar of stars that contains the nucleus.
NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); acknowledgment: P. Knezek (WIYN)

Why a Space Telescope — NGC 3147 is a spiral galaxy 130 million light-years away from Earth. Hubble’s clear view of the cosmos enables it to capture details like the clusters of young blue stars, pinkish nebulas and lanes of dust visible in the galaxy’s graceful, winding arms.
NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi (Università degli Studi Roma Tre University), A. Laor (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology), and M. Chiaberge (ESA, STScI, and JHU)

The image shows an irregularly-shaped bright orange object composed of dense gas and dust, which appears darker and more compact at the centre. This dense cloud, called CB 130-3, is outlined by thinner gas and dust in light shades of blue. The background shows a multitude of bright stars against a black background. — A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this Hubble image. CB 130-3 is an object known as a dense core, a compact agglomeration of gas and dust. Dense cores like CB 130-3 are the birthplaces of stars and are of particular interest to astronomers. During the collapse of these cores enough mass can accumulate in one place to reach the temperatures and densities required to ignite hydrogen fusion, marking the birth of a new star. While it may not be obvious from this image, a compact object teetering on the brink of becoming a star is embedded deep within CB 130-3.
ESA/Hubble, NASA & STScI, C. Britt, T. Huard, A. Pagan

clustered sprinkle of multi-colored stars — This ancient stellar jewelry box, a globular cluster called NGC 6397, glitters with the light from hundreds of thousands of stars.
NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and S. Casertano (STScI) ; Acknowledgement: NASA, ESA, and J. Anderson (STScI)

Since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has offered us stunning images that capture the awe-inspiring beauty of the universe, but Hubble is far more than pretty pictures. Its suite of scientific instruments make it an orbiting observatory that gathers wavelengths of light from ultraviolet, through visible, and into the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble’s sensitivity to such a broad range of wavelengths makes it one of the most valuable and productive observatories in the history of astronomy.

Developed as a partnership between the United States space program and the European Space Agency, Hubble orbits 320 miles (515 km) above Earth’s surface. Its location above the distorting effects of our atmosphere allows Hubble to observe astronomical objects and phenomena more consistently and with better detail than is attainable from most ground-based observatories. The telescope's sensitive instruments can view objects near and far – from small colliding asteroids in our solar system, to distant star-forming galaxies that date back to when the universe was only three percent of its current age. Hubble observations have made key discoveries that characterize the structure and evolution of the universe, galaxies, nebulae, stars, exoplanets, and our solar system neighbors.

From dark energy and black holes to starbirth and the expanding universe, this video series explores the science behind Hubble's observations.

Well into its third operational decade, Hubble continues to be extremely productive. It exceeds one million observations, from which astronomers have written more than 21,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers. More than 1.2 million publications reference those original papers – a number that increases by an average exceeding 150 per day. Every current astronomy textbook includes contributions from Hubble.

Those observations have pushed the boundaries of our knowledge and have created a string of accomplishments that are unparalleled. The following list holds just a few examples of those scientific achievements:

First time elements detected from early universe
First confirmation that supermassive black holes exist
First to prove that black holes are at the cores of almost all galaxies
First images of the collision of two astronomical objects
First to detect oxygen in a satellite’s atmosphere
First images of a star's surface other than our Sun
First visual evidence of planetary building blocks
First exoplanet atmosphere detected and elements determined
First visual evidence of a planet’s atmosphere evaporating away into space
First organic molecules detected in an exoplanet atmosphere
First photographs of an asteroid with tails
First to detect water vapor plumes off of Europa
First space-based images of an asteroid breaking
First image of the first-ever predicted supernova
Farthest galaxy ever imaged at the time
Farthest individual star ever imaged at the time
First detection of water vapor on an exoplanet in the habitable zone
First ultraviolet image of an exoplanet in formation
First detection of a possible moon around an exoplanet
First precision measurement of the expansion rate of the universe
First confirmation that the Andromeda Galaxy will collide with our Milky Way Galaxy

In its three-plus decades of exploration, Hubble has generated as many questions as it has answered – uncovering new mysteries while expanding our understanding of the universe in ways we never imagined.

The stories you find here represent a small sample of Hubble’s thought-provoking discoveries and images. Selecting this set from the thousands of awe-inspiring Hubble observations was difficult, but they serve to highlight some of Hubble’s greatest scientific achievements to date.

Hubble Science Highlights

Learn about some of Hubble's most exciting scientific discoveries.

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Cepheid star in Andromeda galaxy (Hubble observations)

Discovering the Runaway Universe

Our cosmos is growing, and that expansion rate is accelerating.

Tracing the Growth of Galaxies

Hubble is instrumental in uncovering the various stages of galactic evolution.

Studying the Outer Planets and Moons

Hubble’s systematic observations chart the ever-changing environments of our solar system's giant planets and their moons.

Seeing Light Echoes

Like ripples on a pond, pulses of light reverberate through cosmic clouds forming echoes of light.

Hubble observations of galaxies' centers

Monster Black Holes are Everywhere

Supermassive black holes lie at the heart of nearly every galaxy.

Exploring the Birth of Stars

Hubble’s near-infrared instruments see through the gas and dust clouds surrounding newborn stars.

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.

The Death Throes of Stars

From colliding neutron stars to exploding supernovae, Hubble reveals details of some of the mysteries surrounding the deaths of stars.

Shining a Light on Dark Matter

Hubble’s observations help astronomers uncover the underlying structure of the universe.

Thirty proplyds in a 6 by 5 grid. Each one is unique. Some look like tadpoles, others like bright points in a cloudy disk.

Finding Planetary Construction Zones

Hubble’s sensitivity can reveal great disks of gas and dust around stars.

Uncovering Icy Objects in the Kuiper Belt

Hubble’s discoveries helped NASA plan the New Horizon spacecraft’s flyby of Pluto and beyond.

Comma shaped curved cloud of gases in bright white edged with bright-pink star forming regions, and threaded with rusty-brown tendrils of dust at center and throughout the comma shaped merger. All set against the black of deep space.

Galaxy Details and Mergers

Hubble’s observations reveal a menagerie of galaxies.

Blue background. Center of image is a disk blocking the light of a star. Below and just to the left of the disk, at about seven o'clock, is a bright white point. This is PDS 70b.

Recognizing Worlds Beyond Our Sun

Hubble’s unique capabilities allow it to explore planetary systems around other stars.

animation of a binary asteroid with a shifting tail

Tracking Evolution in the Asteroid Belt

These conglomerates of rock and ice may hold clues to the early solar system.

Explore More Hubble

Hubble by the Numbers
From orbit characteristics to data rates, from science proposals to science papers, we've got the numbers!
Impact & Benefits
Hubble's mission is to capture observations of the universe, but its technology would alter life on the ground in unique and unexpected ways.
Hubble Servicing Missions
Hubble’s serviceable design and modular components enabled upgrades that took advantage of advancements in technology.
Hubble Online Activities
Find your Hubble birthday image, take interactive tours, play games, and discover the universe with Hubble.
Hubble E-books
Investigate the mysteries of the universe, or dive into Hubble's history with our free, downloadable e-books.