Episode 54: 22 years in pictures
On 24 April 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
was launched into space.
In the 22 years since, it has sent back more than a million observations.
Here are a few of our favourites: one from every year.
Among the first images to be sent back from Hubble after its launch in April 1990,
this image of Saturn is good by the standards of ground-based telescopes, but slightly blurry.
This is because of the well-publicised problem with Hubble’s mirror.
Although not perfectly sharp, this early image of the Orion Nebula
nevertheless shows the rich colours and structures
of this bright star-forming region.
Throughout the region of the Orion Nebula are numerous streamers of gas
that come from newborn stars, known to astronomers as Herbig-Haro Objects.
In late 1993, Hubble’s teething problems were resolved in the first servicing mission.
Before-and-after images of the core of spiral galaxy Messier 100
show how this dramatically improved the telescope’s image quality.
Soon after, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter
A similar impact on Earth 65 million years ago may have killed off the dinosaurs.
Hubble’s image of the ‘pillars of creation’ in the Eagle Nebula is one of its most famous.
These huge, dusty structures enshroud pockets of ongoing star formation.
This image from 1996 shows a planetary nebula,
which represents the other end of a star’s life from the Eagle Nebula: stellar death.
NASA’s Mars Pathfinder probe was en route to Mars in 1997
while Hubble took this image.
Another planetary nebula, the Ring Nebula is one of the most famous.
The Keyhole Nebula, part of the larger Carina Nebula
is another bright star-forming region
rich in glowing gas.
Not all nebulae glow brightly. NGC 1999 features a dark patch
silhouetted against a brighter background of reflected starlight.
This galaxy shows the dramatic deformations
that can occur after collisions between galaxies.
Further upgrades in 2002, including a new main camera
increased resolution and picture quality again.
This ultra-sharp image demonstrates the new instrument’s capabilities.
This extremely long exposure was designed
to observe the most distant and faintest galaxies in the Universe.
The dramatic collision of two spiral galaxies
is visible in this image of the Antennae Galaxies.
This image of the Orion Nebula
is one of the largest and most detailed ever made.
Globular clusters, roughly spherical collections of stars,
contain some of the oldest stars in our Milky Way.
Hubble can produce sharp images of stars even in their crowded centres.
This image was taken just before an electronic failure in January 2007
which damaged Hubble's main camera.
Although even its remaining instruments meant it could compete
with the best telescopes on the ground.
In 2009, a final servicing mission repaired the damage and installed a new camera
Hubble was back in business.
Using its new instrumentation,
Hubble peered into the heart of Centaurus A,
a dramatically dusty galaxy.
Just published in April 2012,
this image of the Tarantula Nebula combines Hubble observations from 2011,
with colour data from the European Southern Observatory.
It is one of the most detailed ever made of a star-forming region
weighing in at an astonishing 330 megapixels.
Most of Hubble’s data are only made public a year after they are made
So what’s Hubble’s best picture from 2012? You’ll just have to wait to find out...
Subtitles by ESA/Hubble