ESA Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed the aftermath of a smaller galaxy’s scrape with the Milky Way! 🌌 🔴 The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of our nearest neighbours, crashed through the Milky Way’s gaseous halo, tearing away most of its own halo in the process. 🔴 Using Hubble to observe the background light of distant quasars, astronomers were able to measure the size of the LMC’s halo for the first time. They found that it was around 10 times smaller than the haloes of similar galaxies. 🔴 The LMC may be a bit worse for wear after its encounter with the Milky Way, but it is a survivor – it has held onto enough of its gas to keep forming new stars! ⭐ Read more: https://ow.ly/RzG350U6TvP Artist's impression: NASA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI)

Since its launch in 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made 1.6 million observations of over 53,000 astronomical objects! Its 35th anniversary is just around the corner… … and ESA/Hubble is inviting proposals for special events to mark the occasion 🥳 Read more: https://ow.ly/1nEn50U59AU 📷 ESA/Hubble

⭐ Attention #scicomm community! ⭐ The 35th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is coming up, and ESA/Hubble is inviting proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to celebrate! 🎉 Venues selected will receive a special collection of new Hubble images and promotion of their event on our website and social media channels. Read more: https://ow.ly/hlqj50U46hA 📷 ESA/Hubble

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features tangles in the queen’s hair! 👸 🔴 The pair of galaxies MCG+05-31-045 is found in the Coma cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices, named for the hair of Queen Berenice II of Ptolemaic Egypt. 🔴 The Coma cluster contains mostly elliptical galaxies. Many elliptical galaxies are formed in close encounters between galaxies that leave them almost devoid of gas, with ageing stars orbiting in uncoordinated circles. 🔴 It’s likely that a similar fate will befall MCG+05-31-045, although the process will take millions of years. Until then, Queen Berenice II will have to suffer the knots in her hair! Read more: https://ow.ly/qkiN50U4gbP 📷 ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)

Looking to put on an out-of-this-world public event? 🪐 We’re inviting proposals for events to celebrate the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary in April 2025! The selected event organisers will receive a selection of special new Hubble images and promotion of the event on the ESA/Hubble website and social media channels. Read more: https://ow.ly/Mfmb50U1WH8 📷 ESA/Hubble

Pan across a dramatic pair of galaxies! 🤩 The galaxies have only grazed each other so far, with IC 2163 (left) passing behind NGC 2007 (right) millions of years ago. The memory of this encounter can be seen in the shock fronts – where material from the galaxies may have slammed together – and possibly also in the distortion of their arms. The vibrant colours of this scene represent a combination of mid-infrared light from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and visible and ultraviolet light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. 📷 ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) 🎶 Kevin MacLeod - Rising

Celebrate Hubble’s 35th anniversary with ESA/Hubble! 🎊 April 2025 will mark the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary – and ESA/Hubble is inviting proposals for public events to celebrate it. Read more about how to submit a proposal: https://ow.ly/Erfq50U03ab 📷 ESA/Hubble

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features a galactic light show! 🎆 🔴 The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 has an impressive array of lights: billions of stars fill its disc, bubbles of hydrogen gas shine a striking red along its arms, and hot young stars emit powerful X-rays near the centre 🌟 🔴 At the centre is an even more brilliant source of X-rays: an active galactic nucleus created by the heated accretion disc around NGC 1672’s black hole. 🔴 But a subtle highlight of this image is the most fleeting of these lights: the supernova SN 2017GAX. This is just visible here as a small green dot just below the crook of the right-hand spiral arm. Read more: https://ow.ly/L4Kv50TZ86B 📷 ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

💀 Boo! This spooky pair of galaxies stares into the supreme cosmic darkness. 🔴 The pair’s macabre colours represent a combination of mid-infrared light from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with visible and ultraviolet light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. 🔴 These galaxies have only grazed each other in the past, with the smaller spiral on the left (IC 2163) creeping behind the larger spiral on the right (NGC 2207) millions of years ago. 🔴 Over many millions of years to come, the galaxies may swing by one another repeatedly. It’s possible their cores and arms will meld, leaving behind completely reshaped arms and a cyclops-like ‘eye’ at the core. Read more about it here: https://ow.ly/qEVM50TWJ1F 📷 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The Phantom Galaxy 👻 has been captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope once more! Data from two of Webb’s instruments – #MIRI and #NIRCam – were combined to create this dramatic portrait of the spiral galaxy. Its orientation almost face-on to Earth and its well-defined spiral arms make it a favourite target for astronomers ❤️🔥 #WebbSeesFarther 📷 ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) 🎶 Stellardrone - Twilight