Beauty in art and space: The Pinwheel Galaxy is so large it could contain two of our Milky Ways. Its winding spiral arms inspired Alessandro Spadari to create his paintings which can be seen in the Hubble travelling exhibition Our Place in Space.

Type: Unspecified
Category: Miscellaneous
Release date: 27 February 2017, 12:11
Credit: ESA/Hubble, P. Jeffries

Diagram of Hubble: This shows a cross-section of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The radial instrument bay is seen in yellow, the axial instrument bay in red, the primary and secondary mirrors in blue, and the optical equipment in green.

Name: HST, Hubble Space Telescope
Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Telescope
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 1 January 2006
Credit: ESA

Comparison of Hubble and James Webb mirror (annotated): This illustration shows both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and compares their respective mirrors. The main mirror of Hubble has a diameter of 2.4 metres, the foldable main mirror of James Webb is even 6.5 metres in diameter.

Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : TelescopeUnspecified : Technology : Spacecraft
Category: James Webb Space TelescopeSpacecraft
Release date: 2 November 2018, 07:25
Credit: ESA/M. Kornmesser

Comparison of Hubble and James Webb mirror: This illustration shows both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and compares their respective mirrors. The main mirror of Hubble has a diameter of 2.4 metres, the foldable main mirror of James Webb is even 6.5 metres in diameter.

Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : TelescopeUnspecified : Technology : Observatory : Instrument
Category: IllustrationsJames Webb Space TelescopeSpacecraft
Release date: 2 November 2018, 07:25
Credit: ESA/M. Kornmesser

The James Webb Space Telescope and Herschel: This image shows the orbits of both the JWST and Herschel space telescopes. They will both orbit at the Earth-Sun L2 point.

Name: Herschel, James Webb Space Telescope, JWST
Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Telescope
Category: James Webb Space TelescopeMiscellaneous
Release date: 3 March 2011, 18:41
Credit: ESA

Hubble's main mirror: Engineers checking the quality of Hubble's main mirror, during the manufacture process.

Name: Hubble Space Telescope
Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : TelescopeUnspecified : People : Scientist
Category: Miscellaneous
Release date: 15 July 2011, 16:30
Credit: NASA

Hubble/Chandra/Spitzer composite image of NGC 602, in the “wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud: NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope has made the first detection of X-ray emission from young solar-type stars that lie outside our Milky Way galaxy. They live in a region known as the “Wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. X-rays from young stars trace how active their magnetic fields are. Magnetic activity provides clues to a star’s rotation rate and the rising and falling of hot gas in the star’s interior. Astronomers suggest that if the X-ray properties of young stars are similar in different environments around our galaxy, then other related properties, such as the formation of planets, are also likely to be similar. In this composite image of the Wing from NASA’s Great Observatories, the Chandra data are shown in purple; visible light seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is in red, green, and blue; and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are coloured red.

Name: NGC 602
Type: Local Universe : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Hydrus
Release date: 4 April 2013, 13:54
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al; Optical: ESA, NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Installation of the NICMOS cooler: Illustration showing the installation of the NICMOS cooler during Servicing Mission 3B

Name: HST, Hubble Space Telescope, NICMOS, SM3B
Type: Solar System : People : AstronautSolar System : Technology : Observatory : InstrumentSolar System : Technology : Observatory : Telescope
Category: Spacecraft
Release date: 12 March 2002
Credit: NASA & ESA

Fireworks of Star Formation Light Up a Galaxy: Newly released images obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in July 1997 reveal episodes of star formation that are occurring across the face of the nearby galaxy NGC 4214. Located some 13 million light-years from Earth, NGC 4214 is currently forming clusters of new stars from its interstellar gas and dust. In the Hubble image, we can see a sequence of steps in the formation and evolution of stars and star clusters. The picture was created from exposures taken in several colour filters with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

Name: IRAS 12131+3636, NGC 4214, NGC 4228
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Activity : Starburst
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Release date: 6 January 2000, 07:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI)

An expanding bubble in space: Astronomers, using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope in October and November 1997 and April 1999, imaged the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) with unprecedented clarity. For the first time, they are able to understand the geometry and dynamics of this very complicated system. Earlier pictures taken of the nebula with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 1 left many issues unanswered, as the data could not be fully calibrated for scientific use. In addition, those data never imaged the enigmatic inner structure presented here.

Name: Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Cassiopeia
Distance: 8000 light years
Release date: 13 January 2000, 15:20
Credit: NASA/ESA, Donald Walter (South Carolina State University), Paul Scowen and Brian Moore (Arizona State University)

Hubble Finds Young Stars in Cosmic Dance: This composite image, made with two cameras aboard NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a pair of 12 light-year-long jets of gas blasted into space from a young system of three stars. The jet is seen in visible light, and its dusty disk and stars are seen in infrared light. These stars are located near a huge torus, or donut, of gas and dust from which they formed. This torus is tilted edge-on and can be seen as a dark bar near the bottom of the picture.

Name: HH 111
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar ObjectMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: NebulaeStars
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 16 March 2000, 07:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and B. Reipurth (CASA, Univ. of Colorado)

Light and shadow in the Carina Nebula: Previously unseen details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the 'Keyhole Nebula, ' obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used six different colour filters. The picture is dominated by a large, approximately circular feature, which is part of the Keyhole Nebula, named in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel. This region, about 8000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star Eta Carinae, which lies just outside the field of view toward the upper right. The Carina Nebula also contains several other stars that are among the hottest and most massive known, each about 10 times as hot, and 100 times as massive, as our Sun.

Name: Carina Nebula, Keyhole Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Carina
Distance: 7500 light years
Release date: 3 February 2000, 07:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)