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Why an 'unexciting' galaxy could provide clues about the universe's evolution
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a dwarf galaxy that may have merged with a smaller satellite galaxy. If so, the data could help test fundamental theories about the universe's evolution.
Kris Holt07.19.2024Hubble spots colliding galaxies in a spectacular dance
The Hubble telescope has detected a spectacular ring-shaped galaxy merger hundreds of millions of light-years away.
Jon Fingas11.25.2022NASA and SpaceX will study the possibility of using a Dragon capsule to boost Hubble's orbit
It could add years to the aging telescope's life.
Mariella Moon09.30.2022James Webb and Hubble telescope images capture DART asteroid collision
It was the first time the telescopes have observed the same celestial target simultaneously.
Kris Holt09.29.2022Researchers may have discovered a galaxy barely younger than the Big Bang
Astronomers have found the most distant known galaxy to date — it existed just 300 years after the Big Bang.
Jon Fingas04.08.2022Hubble may have spotted the most distant star to date
The Hubble Space Telescope may have spotted the most distant star to date — 12.9 billion light-years away.
Jon Fingas03.30.2022The Hubble telescope is fully operational again after a month-long nap
After multiple instrument sync failures that required putting Hubble into safe mode, NASA says the telescope is now functioning as normal, with all four active instruments collecting data.
Nathan Ingraham12.07.2021Hubble finds evidence of water vapor on Jupiter's largest moon
Researchers re-examined new and archival datasets to make the discovery.
Kris Holt07.26.2021Lego unveils a Space Shuttle Discovery and Hubble Telescope set
NASA worked with Lego on the 1:70 scale, 2,354-piece kit.
Kris Holt03.22.2021Hubble researchers find a gaggle of small black holes
Hubble telescope researchers have found a concentration of small black holes — the first studied in significant detail.
Jon Fingas02.13.202130 years on, Hubble is still making dazzling discoveries
NASA announced that Hubble has released 30 newly created Hubble images as part of the Caldwell catalog.
Steve Dent12.17.2020Strange exoplanet discovery makes a case for the elusive 'Planet Nine'
Hubble researchers have determined that a jovian world has such a strange orbit that it might explain our Solar System's theoretical 'Planet Nine.'
Jon Fingas12.14.2020NASA successfully deploys the James Webb Telescope's enormous mirror
The huge mirror of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope -- its successor to Hubble -- has been successfully tested for the first time, putting it one step closer to its eventual launch, which is slated for 2021. Like Hubble -- which has long outlived its original lifespan but is expected to remain operational for a few years yet -- the James Webb will investigate celestial bodies from our solar system and beyond.
Rachel England04.02.2020Hubble captures the immense 'tsunami' power of quasars
Powered by supermassive black holes that consume huge amounts of galactic material, quasars are some of the most energetic objects in the universe. How energetic? Some of them shine up to 1,000 times brighter than the galaxies that house them. Now, a team of astronomers has used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine several large quasars, and what they found was mind-boggling. Some quasars act like tsunamis, pushing 46-million-MPH winds that blast out hundreds of times the Sun's weight of material per year while creating ripples across entire galaxies.
Steve Dent03.25.2020Hubble telescope 'mother' Nancy Grace Roman dies
The astronomy world is poorer off today. Nancy Grace Roman, the first chief of astronomy at NASA's Office of Space Science, died on December 25th at 93. She was widely considered the "mother" of the Hubble Space Telescope, persuading the scientific community to rally around the concept and campaigning for funding. While Hubble launched 11 years after her retirement, there's little doubt that it was her efforts that made the telescope a reality.
Jon Fingas12.31.2018After Math: Life imitating art imitating life
Between the political theater and unreal earnings reports, this has been a surreal week for the ages. But while you were glued to the news feeds, an AI-generated art piece sold for silly money, NASA fixed the Hubble by jiggling its handle and a band of clever thieves perpetrated a multimillion-download ad scam that would put the Ocean's crew to shame.
Andrew Tarantola10.28.2018NASA fixes Hubble gyroscope by turning it off and on again
Hubble's designers prepared for gyroscope failure by equipping the observatory with a backup. Unfortunately, when one of Hubble's gyroscopes conked out in early October, the backup didn't work as expected -- it was rotating too fast and hence won't be able to hold the telescope in place when it needs to stay still and lock in on a target. NASA has since been able to reduce its rotation rates and fix its issues by implementing an age-old fix for malfunctioning electronics: turning it off and on again.
Mariella Moon10.24.2018NASA's Chandra telescope follows Hubble into a shutdown
NASA sure hasn't been having a great time with its telescopes. The Chandra X-ray Observatory has gone into safe mode and halted all its science operations a few days after Hubble shut down due a gyroscope failure. According to the agency, Chandra's transition into safe mode was possibly triggered by an issue that also has something to do with its gyroscope, the component in charge of pointing and stabilizing the telescope.
Mariella Moon10.13.2018Hubble Space Telescope is in trouble after gyroscope failure
The Hubble Space Telescope has advanced our understanding of the universe immeasurably since it was first deployed to low Earth orbit in 1990. It's impossible to overemphasize just how valuable it has been to scientists. But now, the space-based observatory is in trouble. The NASA Hubble Twitter account announced that on Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope went into safe mode after a gyroscope, used to point and stabilize the observatory, failed.
Swapna Krishna10.08.2018Scientists validate theory of relativity on galactic level
Einstein's theory of general relativity is rather important when it's crucial to the modern understandings of the universe and technology like satellites. But does it hold up with something as vast as a galaxy? Thanks to researchers, we know the answer is "yes." They've conducted a test that used two comparatively distant galaxies, one in front of the other, to show that relativity checks out.
Jon Fingas06.24.2018