The universe suddenly looks a lot more crowded, thanks to a deep-sky census assembled from surveys taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. Astronomers came to the surprising conclusion that there are at least 10 times more galaxies in the observable universe than previously thought. The results have clear implications for galaxy formation,…
Category: Hubble
Universe may be expanding faster than expected
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than expected. “This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don’t emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and…
Meet the newest member of our solar system
In 2005, Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Chad Trujillo discovered dwarf planet Makemake, currently believed to be the third largest object in the Kuiper Belt after Pluto and Eris. But at the time, astronomers believed it was alone out there on its long path around the Sun. But new data from the Hubble Space Telescope…
Elegance conceals an eventful past
The elegant simplicity of NGC 4111, seen here in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, hides a more violent history than you might think. NGC 4111 is a lenticular, or lens-shaped, galaxy, lying about 50 million light-years from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Lenticular galaxies are an intermediate…
Hubble breaks cosmic distance record
This image shows the position of the most distant galaxy discovered so far within a deep sky Hubble Space Telescope survey called GOODS North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North). The survey field contains tens of thousands of galaxies stretching far back into time.The remote galaxy GN-z11, shown in the inset, existed only 400 million…
Hubble spots strange spiral galaxy
Hubble captures image of spiral galaxy which exhibits rare behaviours Astronomers observed intense radio jets spewed from the galaxy’s centre The galaxy also has two more regions producing strong radio emissions Nasa says such activities have long been associated with elliptical galaxies The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted unusual behaviour in a constellation one…
Hubble Checks out a Home for Old Stars
Just in time for the release of the movie “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has photographed what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber. In the center of the image, partially obscured by a dark, Jedi-like cloak of dust, a newborn star shoots twin jets out into space as a…
First-ever predicted exploding star
Many stars end their lives with a with a bang, but only a few of these stellar explosions have been caught in the act. When they are, spotting them successfully has been down to pure luck — until now. On 11 December, 2015, astronomers not only imaged a supernova in action, but saw it when…
Hubble Sees ‘First Light’ Galaxies at Dawn of Time
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken its deepest-yet look into the cosmos to see some of the earliest galaxies that popped into existence only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The international team that made the discovery also report these tiny primordial galaxies, which are estimated to have formed only 600 million…
Hubble Spies Big Bang Frontiers
Main image: Hubble observations have taken advantage of gravitational lensing to reveal the largest sample of the faintest and earliest known galaxies in the universe. Some of these galaxies formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang. Credits: ESA/NASA Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken advantage of gravitational lensing to reveal…
