While the James Webb Space Telescope stole the spotlight this year by beginning its journey into deep space to take extremely detailed photos, its predecessor was still going strong.
The Hubble Space Telescope produced some jaw-dropping images of swirling galaxies, shining star clusters, and nebulae that channel the spirit of THOR's colorful bifrost bridge this year. There are still so many Hubble photos from this year to look over, even though the James Webb Space Telescope is set to take spectacular images.
Astronomers will study images from both telescopes even after they are 1.5 million km from Earth. Hubble will be able to peer further into the past since it is further away, and it will be able to see the birth of the universe's first stars and galaxies.
There is a collection of Hubble photos shared by NASA and the European Space Agency.
There is a gap between the stars and hydrogen gas. Credit: NASA, the European Space Agency, V. Ksoll and D. Gouliermis.
The Latin word for furnace is Fornax, which is the Latin word for spiral galaxy. J. Lee and the NASA were credited.
CW Leonis is 400 light-years away. Credit is given to NASA, the University of Denver, and the KASI.
There is a gas and dust collision within the Running Man nebula. Credit: NASA, J. Bally, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
How to find the James Webb telescope.
The Veil Nebula is all it's glory. This image only shows a small portion of the nebula that is light-years away. Z. Levay is a credit to the ESA/Hubble and NASA.
The blue stretching out along the spirals indicates younger stars while the yellow in the center indicates older stars in this photo. J. Lee and the NASA were credited.
Abell 78 is located in the Cygnus constellation, 5000 light-years from Earth. The core of the star has stopped burning hydrogen and helium, but a thermonuclear runaway at its surface can cause high speeds. According to NASA, the material of the old nebula was shocks and sweeps up, producing the irregular shell around the central star. Credit: NASA, M.
The Toucan is a constellation with an open star cluster called NGC 330. The stars and the nebula in the bottom left will be looked at with the James Webb Space Telescope. J. Kalirai, A. Milone, and NASA are all credited.
The "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" is what the galaxy is known for. New stars form when the rotating gases collide in the inner and outer regions. J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST TeamAcknowledgement are credited.
There are two bright spots in the center of this image. Four points of light surround those two spots. There is a fifth point in the center as seen by Hubble. The five points are the same quasar that emits a lot of energy. The quasar is further away from Earth than the enormous galaxies, which are causing light from the quasar to bend in a way that it appears to multiply. T. Treu is associated with the ESA/Hubble and NASA.
The spiral galaxy is 57 million light-years away from the Milky Way. M. Sun is a credit to the ESA/Hubble and NASA.
The two galaxies are 350 million light-years away from Earth. W. Harris and L. Shatz were acknowledged.
The constellation Delphinus is home to the glowing planetary nebula, NGC 6891. A. Hajian (University of Waterloo), H. Bond (Pennsylvania State University), and B.Balick (University of Washington) were all involved in the project.
We can expect to see the first shots from the James Webb Space Telescope next summer if all goes to plan. We'll have more wonders from Hubble after that.
