We wish a happy 100th birthday to the late Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, the namesake of @NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, which is on track to launch by May 2027. Often known as the “Mother of Hubble,” Dr. Roman did much more. Recalling when she was asked if she would be interested in starting the astronomy program at NASA, Dr. Roman reflected, “I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist.” Dr. Roman’s legacy will continue to inspire the next generation of astronomers and beyond. “She had a vision for what amazing discoveries are possible when you put an observatory up in orbit above Earth’s atmosphere, and, for me, that defines NASA as an agency. Time and again, NASA science has rewritten our understanding of the world and universe we live in, and that’s thanks to Dr. Roman.” – Jackie Townsend, Roman’s deputy project manager. Dr. Roman’s passion and dedication drove the development of telescopes like @NASAHubble, @NASAWebb, and now Roman, which is in the final stages of assembly at @NASAGoddard Space Flight Center. This summer, Roman’s hardware will go through more testing before the full observatory is assembled later this fall. Make sure to follow @NASAUniverse and @NASAGoddard for the latest #NASARoman updates. Image credits: NASA Image descriptions are in the comments. #NASA #NancyGraceRoman #HappyBirthday #Birthday #Astrophysics

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3 days ago

A cosmic cloudscape ☁️ This week's new #HubbleFriday image takes a look into one of our Milky Way's galaxy neighbors, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Classified as a dwarf galaxy, it's located roughly 160,000 light-years away and is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies. This view of dusty gas clouds in the LMC combines observations made with five different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see. Discover more at the link in our bio! Image description: Part of a nebula in space. Layers of gas and dust clouds in different colors, from blue and green shades to pink, red, and black, each indicating light emitted by different molecules, comprise the nebula. The background cloud layers are thicker and puffier, though still translucent, and the upper layers are thin and bright at the edges. Behind the clouds are many small, mostly orange and some blue, stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray #NASA #Hubble #Friday #space #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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3 days ago

A ring of stars shines fiercely in the galaxy NGC 1317. Located more than 50 million light-years away, this spiral galaxy's ring hosts hot, young stars. Hubble studied NGC 1317 as part of an observing campaign to help astronomers chart the connections between vast clouds of cold gas and the stars that form within them. Learn more about this Hubble view at the link in our bio! Image description: A vast, face-on spiral galaxy that holds an inner ring of bright-blue, young stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team #NASA #Hubble #space #science #astronomy #galaxy #telescope #universe #stars

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5 days ago

NGC 5468 brings the drama. This stunning spiral galaxy has given Hubble a front-row seat to some of the universe's most dramatic events. Despite being 130 million light-years away, this galaxy's face-on orientation makes it easier for Hubble to spot supernovae – the explosive deaths of massive stars. NGC 5468 has hosted both of the two common types of supernovae. One type occurs when a big star runs out of fuel at the end of its life, causing it to become unstable and unable to support its own bulk, leading it to collapse inward and violently explode. The other type happens when a white dwarf (the dense remnant of a dying star) within an orbiting stellar pair siphons more mass off its companion than it is able to support, igniting runaway nuclear fusion in its core and beginning the supernova process. Both types result in an intensely bright explosion that can rival the light of a whole galaxy! Image description: A spiral galaxy with a hazy yellow core fills the image. Spiral arms extend outward, full of white and blue stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Li et al. #NASA #Hubble #telescope #galaxy #space #science #stars #universe #astronomy

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6 days ago

Lifting the veil ✨ Hubble's view of the Veil Nebula shows the remnants of a star's explosive death in a supernova. This star was about 20 times as massive as our Sun, and exploded 10,000 years ago. Hubble has observed the Veil Nebula multiple times, allowing scientists to track how this supernova remnant evolves over decades. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sankrit Music credit: "Dark Matter" by Marten Joustra [PRS] and Andy Blythe [PRS] via Ingenious Music Publishing Ltd. [PRS] and Universal Production Music #NASA #Hubble #nebula #astronomy #science #space #universe #cosmos #telescope #astrophotography

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7 days ago

Another day at the office! 🧑‍🚀 The fifth servicing mission to Hubble began #OTD in 2009. Astronauts gave Hubble new life through five spacewalks that set Hubble up for many more years of discovery. Two new scientific instruments were installed: the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide Field Camera 3. Two failed instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, were brought back to operation by the first ever on-orbit repairs. These efforts brought Hubble to the apex of its scientific capabilities, and it continues sending back exciting astronomical data to this day. Image descriptions: 1 - The body of the Hubble Space Telescope is seen attached to the cargo bay with astronauts completing servicing work. Hubble's solar arrays at the top of the image, and Earth is seen beneath the telescope. 2 - The Hubble Space Telescope is pictured orbiting above a desert region of Earth, with black space behind it. #OnThisDay #NASA #Hubble #history #astronomy #astronaut #space #science #Earth

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8 days ago

Round and round we go... In this new #HubbleFriday image, the spiral galaxy NGC 3596 shines from 90 million light-years away. From Hubble's perspective in low-Earth orbit, NGC 3596 appears face-on, showcasing the galaxy’s neatly wound spiral arms. These bright arms hold concentrations of stars, gas, and dust, that mark where star formation is most active, seen as the brilliant pink star-forming regions and young blue stars tracing NGC 3596’s arms. Researchers believe that spiral arms represent a pattern of high-density and low-density areas rather than a physical structure. As stars, gas, and dust orbit within a galaxy’s disk, they pass in and out of the spiral arms. Like cars moving through a traffic jam, these materials slow down and bunch up as they enter a spiral arm, before emerging and continuing their journey through the galaxy. Discover more at the link in our bio! Image description: A spiral galaxy viewed face-on, with a slightly oval-shaped disk. The galaxy’s center appears as a bright white spot surrounded by a golden glow. Two spiral arms extend out from the center, wrapping around the galaxy and broadening out to form the thick outer edge of the disk. Thin reddish strands of dust and bright pink spots follow the arms through the disk. Faint strands of stars extend from the tips of the spiral arms and out beyond the disk. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker #NASA #Hubble #Friday #galaxy #space #stars #science #astronomy #universe

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10 days ago

Midnight snack gives away giant black hole! ⚫ This sneaky black hole betrayed its presence in a newly identified tidal disruption event, where a star was ripped apart and swallowed in a spectacular burst of radiation. Using Hubble, astronomers pinpointed the location of this wandering supermassive black hole, with help from @NASAChandraXray and the NRAO Very Large Array telescope. Surprisingly, this one million-solar-mass black hole doesn’t reside at the center of its host galaxy, where supermassive black holes are typically found. In fact, at the center of the host galaxy there’s a whole other supermassive black hole weighing 100 million times the mass of the Sun! This monster black hole is just 2,600 light-years off-center from the galaxy’s central black hole. That’s just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole! However, these two black holes aren’t gravitationally bound to each other, even though they coexist in the same galaxy. You can learn more about this new result at the link in @NASAHubble’s bio. Image descriptions and credits in comments. #NASA #Hubble #BlackHole #Chandra #science #astronomy #universe #astrophysics #space #telescope

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11 days ago

UGC 5460 is a happening place! 🌟 This galaxy has hosted two recent supernovae, which are the explosive deaths of stars. Because of that, Hubble targeted UGC 5460 to collect data for three observing programs that aim to study various kinds of supernovae. UGC 5460 resides about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Music credit: "Digi Hero" by Clay Xavier [BMI] via Emperia Beta Publishing [BMI] and Universal Production Music Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerhan #NASA #Hubble #galaxy #science #space #universe #telescope #cosmos #stars #astronomy

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12 days ago