It’s been over four centuries since Galileo first used a telescope to gaze at the stars, its safe to say mans desire to explore the “heavens” is still as strong today as it was back then. However we do have a little something now that Galileo didn’t and that’s the Hubble Space Telescope.
Named after American astronomer Edwin P Hubble, the telescope was launched into space on April 24, 1990. It was the first optical telescope ever to leave Earth’s atmosphere and orbits Earth once every 97minutes traveling at a super speedy 17,500mph.
In homage to the Hubble Space Telescope here are 10 jaw dropping photos of outer space.
10) Messier 100 – This is the most detailed image to date, and shows the bright core of the galaxy and the innermost parts of its spiral arms. Messier 100 has an active galactic nucleus — a bright region at the galaxy’s core caused by a supermassive black hole that is actively swallowing material, which radiates brightly as it falls inwards.
9) Carina Nebula – This image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch. The Carina Nebula is some 7500 light years away.
8) Butterfly Nebula – This image was released back in 2009 when the Hubble Telescope was being serviced.
7) Cat’s Paw – Also known as the NGC 6334, is about 5500 light years away and could contain tens of thousands of stars, including newly ignited blue stars.
6) The Crab Nebula – This is a result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light years and in the very centre of the Nebula is a pulsar. A pulsar is the size of a small town but is as massive as our Sun.
5) Messier 70 – Can be seen faintly with binoculars in the constellation of Sagittarius. The Messier 70 was first documented back in 1780 by French astronomer Charles Messier.
4) Geode – This image shows a rare view of intense ultraviolet radiation from a young hot star.
3) Centaurus A – Again this galaxy can be seen through binoculars in the southern hemisphere.
2) NGC 891 – This galaxy is located about 30 million light years away from Earth, this galaxy is visible in the constellation of Andromeda.
1)The Milky Way – Our very own galaxy, this image was stitched together from 3 separate images taken from the Hubble Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
There you have it 10 jaw dropping photos from outer space. Looking at those I think it would be naïve to think that we are the only intelligent civilisation out there, it kind of makes you feel a little small doesn’t it?
Jon Hartley workes for TonerGiant as their product development specialist. TonerGiantare one of the UK’s major suppliers for printer consumables. He’s a big fan of sports and technology.
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