Hubble’s Universe

Year after year, Hubble provides stunning images of the cosmos. This album provides just a taste of the most famous and intriguing images taken.

Popular Tags

Westerlund 2, a giant cluster of 3,000 stars, resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29. The...
Located in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), around 50 million light-years from Earth, the galaxy NGC 4535 is truly...
Astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras — stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere — on...
In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope spent 10 straight days in a unique experiment, staring at a dark, seemingly empty...
Merging Star Clusters in 30 Doradus This Hubble Space Telescope image captures two clusters full of massive stars that may...
Eye in the Sky This image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 4826 — a spiral galaxy located...
This image of Caldwell 69 includes ultraviolet, visible, and infrared observations taken in 2019 and 2020 by Hubble’s Wide Field...
This image of massive galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 was part of the Hubble Space Telescope's Frontier Fields project, which combined...
The Mice This colliding pair of spiral galaxies is known as "The Mice" because of the long tails of stars...
The scattered stars of the globular cluster NGC 6355 are strewn across this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC...
This 100 million-year-old globular cluster is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and...
NGC 2146 is classified as a barred spiral because of its shape, but the most distinctive feature is the dusty...
Looming like a giant flying saucer in our outer solar system, Saturn puts on a show as the planet and...
The composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp Hubble Space Telescope images combined with the wide view of the...
This 100 million-year-old globular cluster is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and...
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the central region of Messier 96 (M96), a spiral galaxy of about the same...
This galaxy, called NGC 1569, sparkles with the light from millions of newly formed young stars. NGC 1569 is pumping...
Ring galaxies arise from a collision in which one galaxy plunges directly through the disk of another one. Seen here...
The hallmark of the Sombrero Galaxy, Messier 104 (M104), is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by thick dust lanes...
Like a fireworks display, a young, glittering collection of stars looks like an aerial burst. The cluster of huge, hot...
To the surprise of astronomers, galaxy NGC 4622 appears to be rotating in the opposite direction from what they expected....
A jet of electrons and other sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light streams from galaxy Messier 87...
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may...
Elliptical galaxy NGC 4660 is one of a hundred galaxies imaged by Hubble that are members of the nearest large...
The orange-red "cobwebs" in this Hubble image are dusty clouds of sooty carbon engulfing the dying star CW Leonis. They...
Shreds of the colorful supernova remnant DEM L 190 seem to billow across the screen in this Hubble Space Telescope...
The Hubble Space Telescope was used to observe Saturn on June 6, 2018, when Saturn was only approximately 1.36 billion...
This peculiar Hubble Space Telescope portrait showcases NGC 1999, a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. NGC 1999 is around...
This Hubble Space Telescope composite image shows a ghostly "ring" of dark matter in the galaxy cluster ZwCl0024+1652. The ring-like...
In July 1994, 21 chunks of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which had broken apart a year earlier, slammed into Jupiter. The...
Mounded, luminous clouds of gas and dust glow in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a Herbig-Haro object known as...
N44 is a complex nebula filled with glowing hydrogen gas, dark lanes of dust, massive stars, and many populations of...
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows how young, energetic, massive stars illuminate and sculpt their birthplace with powerful winds and...
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the interacting galaxy pair Arp 273, popularly called the “Rose.” The larger...
Thousands of sparkling young stars are nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603. This stellar "jewel box" is one of...
By using certain types of color filters, as in this Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus, astronomers can extract more...
A nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia has flowing veils of gas and dust that have earned it the nickname...
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 in visible and near-infrared light. Abell 370...
As nuclear fusion engines, most stars live placid lives for hundreds of millions to billions of years. But near the...
Astronomers used the Hubble Space telescope to revisit one of its most iconic subjects, the so-called "Pillars of Creation" in...
Observing in infrared light, Hubble pierced through the obscuring gas and dust of M16’s Pillars of Creation. This ethereal image...
M2-9 is a striking example of a "butterfly" or a bipolar planetary nebula. Another more revealing name might be the...
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of...
Two dramatically different faces of the Red Planet appear in these comparison images showing how a global dust storm engulfed...
Glowing like a multi-faceted jewel, the planetary nebula IC 418 lies about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of...
Looking like a glittering swarm of buzzing bees, the stars of globular cluster NGC 6440 shine brightly in this Hubble...
"Starry Night," Vincent van Gogh's famous painting, is renowned for its bold whorls of light sweeping across a raging night...
A photogenic and favorite target for amateur astronomers, the full beauty of nearby spiral galaxy M83, also known as the...
The Crab Nebula is an expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event...
Peering deep into M1, this spectacular Hubble image captures the nebula’s beating heart: the rapidly spinning pulsar at its core....
This Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet image of Saturn was taken when the planet's rings were at a maximum tilt of...
Not only is the Cat's Eye Nebula, formally cataloged NGC 6543, one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered,...
This dramatic image offers a peek inside a cavern of roiling dust and gas where thousands of stars are forming....
This Hubble Space Telescope image, taken in 1994, shows several blue, loop-shaped objects that actually are multiple images of the...
This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being...
Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since...
This spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years...
Like lifting a giant veil, the near-infrared vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope uncovers this dazzling view deep inside the...
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows rich detail in a pair of star clusters 166,000 light-years away in the Large...
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of an enormous bubble being blown into space by a super-hot, massive star....
This image of the central region of spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is not out of focus. Instead, the galaxy itself...
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the expanding remains of a massive star...
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field consists of a rich tapestry of around 10,000 galaxies of all sizes, shapes, and ages....
The muted red tones of the globular cluster Liller 1 are partially obscured in this Hubble Space Telescope image by...
The star AG Carinae is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust. The nebula is about five light-years...
Soon after Hubble first began sending images from space, scientists discovered that the telescope's primary mirror had a flaw called...
The Hubble Extreme Deep Field (XDF) combines 10 years of Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a small patch of...
The spiral pattern shown by the galaxy in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope is striking because of its...
Resembling the fury of a raging sea, this image actually shows a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen gas and small...
The Hubble Space Telescope provided astronomers with extraordinary views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, a fragile comet that was rapidly disintegrating...
This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our Moon. This image, taken...
Renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler took science data from the Hubble Space Telescope archive and combined it with his own ground-based...
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this close-up view of an electric-blue aurora eerily glowing one-half billion miles away on the...
Galaxy NGC 6861 features a prominent disk of dark bands circling its center. These bands are a result of large...
Galaxies come in a range of shapes and sizes, and astronomers use this fact to classify them based on their...
This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals previously unseen details of the Ring Nebula. The object is...
NGC 1300 is considered by many as a prototypical barred spiral galaxy. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in...
A colorful assortment of 100,000 stars resides in the crowded core of Omega Centauri, a giant globular cluster. This is...
M82 or the Cigar galaxy, shines brightly at infrared wavelengths and is remarkable for its star formation activity. The Cigar...
In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers used Hubble to capture this...
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's...
In this unusual image, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode —...
The star cluster Pismis 24 lies within the much larger emission nebula called NGC 6357, located about 8,000 light-years from...
This is an image of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away, taken with the Wide Field...
Asteroid P/2010 A2 puzzled astronomers in 2010 with its comet-like tail. The object appeared so unusual in ground-based telescope images...
In the center of this image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, are two faint galaxies that seem to be...
A head-on collision between two galaxies fueled the unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy, as captured this Hubble Space Telescope image. The...
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the iridescent interior of one of the most active galaxies in our local...
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapshot reveals what looks like an uncanny pair of glowing eyes staring in our direction....
The Hubble Legacy Field represents the largest, most comprehensive "history book" of galaxies in the universe. The image, a combination...
This Hubble Space Telescope portrait of Stephan's Quintet, also known as Hickson Compact Group 92, seems to show a group...
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this picture of Mars on October 28, 2005, within a day of its closest approach...
The Hubble Space Telescope photographed this peculiar system of galaxies known as Arp 194. This interacting group contains several galaxies,...
Galaxy Messier 51 (M51, also designated NGC 5194) is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its prominent swirling structure. Its two...
This beautiful image features the globular star cluster M75. Discovered in 1780 by Pierre Méchain, M75 was also observed by...
This Hubble Space Telescope snapshot of the dynamic blue-green planet Neptune reveals a monstrous dark storm (top center) and the...
This image shows the central section of galaxy Messier 94 (M94), which lies in the small northern constellation of Canes...
This odd-looking galaxy with the long streamer of stars appears to be racing through space like a runaway pinwheel firework,...
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a grouping of galaxies engaged in a slow dance of destruction that will last for...
The Hubble image on the left shows the bright core of M84 surrounded by a dark band of gas and...
Two spiral galaxies are seen passing by each other like majestic ships in the night in this Hubble Space Telescope...
Garden-variety stars like the Sun live fairly placid lives in their galactic neighborhoods, steadily churning out heat and light for...
On January 24, 2015, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a rare look at three of Jupiter's largest moons, Europa, Callisto,...
Hubble captured this close-up of stars in Caldwell 86 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2005. These observations helped...
This Hubble image, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows both the spindly, spidery filaments of gas...
Assembled from a total of 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings of the telescope, this image of our nearest...
Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of...
Resembling an interstellar Frisbee, the dark feature in these two Hubble images is a protoplanetary disk of dust seen edge-on...
From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3) resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety...
Saturn's comparatively paper-thin rings are tilted edge on to Earth every 15 years. Because the orbits of Saturn's major satellites...
This Hubble Space Telescope image offers a close-up look at a nearby example of galactic cannibalism: a massive black hole...
These delicate wisps of gas make up an object known as SNR B0519-69.0, or SNR 0519 for short. The thin,...
Terzan 1 is not a new target for Hubble — an image of the cluster was released back in 2015,...
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this infrared-light portrait of a roiling region of star birth located 6,400 light-years away. The...
The Antennae galaxies, a merging pair of galaxies located about 62 million light-years from Earth, are shown in this image...
Now you see them, now you don't. Three views of the same supernova appear in the 2016 image on the...
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the...
NGC 2336 is the quintessential galaxy — big, beautiful, and blue — and it is captured here by the NASA/ESA...