Science Features
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Galaxy Silhouettes
These Hubble images offer an unprecedented view of a planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's atmosphere.
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Hubble Sees Magnetic Monster in Erupting Galaxy
Hubble has found an answer to a long-standing puzzle by examining a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275.
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Hubble Unveils Colorful Star Nursery on 100,000th Orbit
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a nebula near star cluster NGC 2074 on Aug. 10, 2008, the day before the observatory completed its 100,00th orbit of Earth.
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Globular Clusters Tell Tale of Star Formation
A new study of globular clusters has found evidence that these hardy pioneers are likely to form in dense areas, where star birth occurs at a rapid rate.
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Barred Spiral Galaxies Are Latecomers to the Universe
Astronomers have found that so-called barred spiral galaxies were far less plentiful 7 billion years ago than they are today, in the local universe.
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Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter
These Hubble images offer an unprecedented view of a planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's atmosphere.
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Mystery Star Cluster Has 3 Different Birthdays
Astronomers have found the equivalent of three out-of-sync "clocks" in the ancient open star cluster NGC 6791.
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Hubble Sees Stars and a Stripe in Celestial Fireworks
Hubble captures a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.
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The Coma Cluster
The Coma Cluster is one of the densest known galaxy collections in the universe.
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Hubble Finds Missing Matter
Astronomers say they have found about half of the universe's "missing" normal matter, called baryons, in the space between galaxies.
Hubble Accomplishments
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Age of the Universe →
Thanks in part to the Hubble Space Telescope, we know the universe is 13.7 billion years old.
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At Galaxies' Cores →
Nearly all galaxies may harbor supermassive black holes.
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How Planets Form
The Hubble Space Telescope has helped scientists determine the process of how planets are born.
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Extrasolar Organic Matter
The Hubble Space Telescope detected the first organic molecule discovered on a planet outside our solar system.
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Dark Energy →
The Hubble Space Telescope detected a distant supernova that suggests the universe only recently began speeding up.
World Book at NASA
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Edwin P. Hubble
The work of American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble revolutionized our understanding of the size and structure of the universe.
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Galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, dust, and gas held together by gravity.
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Nebula
A nebula is a cloud of dust particles and gases in space.
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Planet
A planet is a large, round heavenly body that orbits a star and shines with light reflected from the star.
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Space Exploration
Space exploration is our human response to curiosity about Earth, the moon, the planets, the sun and other stars, and the galaxy.