Hubble's 'First Light'

This "first light" image from Hubble was released in May 1990, to illustrate the telescope's improved resolution when compared to ground-based observatories. On the right is part of the first image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field/Planetary Camera. It is shown with a ground-based picture of the same region of the sky from Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The Las Campanas picture was taken with a 100-inch telescope and it is typical of high-quality pictures obtained from the ground.

Two black and white images. Left is ground based image, the right is a Hubble image.
Even accounting for the aberration in Hubble's mirror, the space telescope's image (right) offers more clarity than what was generally possible with ground-based observations (left). Astronauts installed new equipment that successfully addressed the mirror aberration on Hubble during a 1993 mission.
E. Persson (Las Campanas Observatory, Chile)/Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Right: NASA, ESA and STScI

The images of the stars in the ground-based picture are fuzzy, and in some cases overlap, because of the smearing effect of Earth's atmosphere. The same stars in the Hubble frame are sharper, as shown by the double star at the top of the image. In this early engineering picture, the Hubble images are roughly 50 percent sharper than the ground-based images.

The first image taken with Hubble was intended to assist in focusing the telescope. The region observed is centered on the 8.2-magnitude star HD96755 in the open cluster NGC 3532, in the southern constellation Carina. Identical small subsections of the Hubble and ground-based images were chosen to highlight the difference in resolution. The field shown is approximately 11-by-14 arcseconds in size and does not contain HD96755.

Cluster NGC 3532 is near the Carina Nebula, a vast star-forming region shown in this Hubble Space Telescope composite image.
NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF

Explore More

5 min read

50 Years Ago: Launch of Helios 1 to Explore the Sun 

On Dec. 10, 1974, NASA launched Helios 1, the first of two spacecraft to make close observations of the Sun. In one of the largest international efforts at the time, the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany, provided the spacecraft, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, had overall responsibility for […]

Article2 days ago
17 min read

30 Years Ago: NASA Selects its 15th Group of Astronauts 

On Dec. 8, 1994, NASA announced the selection of its 15th group of astronauts. The diverse group comprised 19 candidates – 10 pilots and nine mission specialists, and included five women, two African Americans, one Asian American, and the first Peruvian-born and Indian-born astronauts. Four international astronauts, one each from Canada and Japan and two […]

Article2 days ago
A montage of Hubble Space Telescope images of our solar system's four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, taken under the OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) program over 10 years, from 2014 to 2024.
8 min read

NASA’s Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets

Article3 days ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno