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Hubble’s Wildest

April 25 to April 30, 2024

This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern of etchings in its walls. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, Sun-like star.
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On the heels of Hubble’s 34th anniversary, we explored some of Hubble’s wildest and weirdest observations of our universe during its decades-long mission. We focused on six interesting images and took a deep dive into the science behind them on social media.

Hubble's Wildest Images

Two sets of rings in orange and gold stacked one above the other form the shape of a hourglass. At image center, where the two sets of rings overlap, is an area of white, green and black dust in a shape that is similar to the human eye.

Hourglass Nebula (MyCn18)

This young planetary nebula holds intricate pattern of gas and dust in its walls. 

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Two edge-on, spiral galaxies appear to be at right angles to each other. One extending from the lower left to the upper right. The other has distinct spiral arms and dust lanes and extends from just left of center to the lower right. Black background dotted with stars.

NGC 3314

While these two overlapping galaxies appear in the midst of a collision, the two are in a chance alignment from our vantage point.

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A galaxy, large and occupying most of the view from the center. The whole galaxy is made of smooth, diffuse light. The galaxy is surrounded by a smoky gray halo. Many stars shine around the galaxy, on a black background.

NGC 6684

The lens-shaped galaxy NGC 6684 is around 44 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pavo. 

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Gravitational lensing distorts Hubble's view of this spiral galaxy in the Abell 68 cluster.

Space Invader in Abell 68

This alien-looking mirage is the result of the gravitational field of a foreground galaxy cluster warping space and distorting the light of more distant galaxies.

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Two galaxies, each has a bright-white core. Their cores are very close together. They are surrounded by light blue gas, dust, and stars that form a ring around the cores.

Arp-Madore 2026-424

Galaxy collisions are common — especially back in the young universe — most of them are not head-on smashups, like the collision that likely created this system. 

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A black background is punctuated with distant stars and galaxies. One bright foreground star sits just to the right of image center. Slightly above and to the left of image center is a faint, bluish-green spiral.

LL Pegasi Spiral

A pair of stars orbiting each other creates an intriguing spiral pattern.

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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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