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Hubble Space Telescope: 30th Anniversary Image Unveiling

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Presenting the Hubble Space Telescope 30th anniversary image!

Join us for a journey through space! Dr. Frank Summers and Dr. Elena Sabbi describe the science and the visual splendor of the “Cosmic Reef”, an image that commemorates Hubble’s 30 years of observing the cosmos.

Recorded live on Friday, April 24, at 1 p.m.

Cosmic Reef: NGC 2014 & NGC 2020

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This science visualization presents the dramatic landscape of two nebulas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The video, based on images by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, takes viewers on a close-up tour of the nebulas’ three-dimensional structures, as envisioned by scientists and artists.

The movie begins with the Hubble view of NGC 2014 (lower left) and NGC 2020 (upper right). The region has been nicknamed the “Cosmic Reef,” because of its resemblance to an undersea world. The camera then flies past myriad stars for a close-up look at NGC 2014. The first stop is the bubble of hot gas on the left that has a coral-like appearance. Energetic ultraviolet light from the system’s most massive stars has heated the gas, while strong stellar winds (streams of charged particles) help create its bubble structure.

The journey continues into the heart of the nebula, home to extraordinarily massive and bright stars. The glowing gas in this region is bathed in the stars’ intense luminosity. In contrast, the dark, denser gas is resisting that radiation, and is blown back to form craggy, mountainous shapes. The virtual flight moves past ridges, valleys, and pockets of new star formation.

The camera then rises up and over a ridge of NGC 2014, revealing the three-dimensional structure of neighboring NGC 2020. The Wolf-Rayet star at its core is the mammoth, intensely hot source of this nebula. Episodes of outbursts from the young star have produced cloudy rings and clumps in the bright blue gas. While Hubble views NGC 2020 looking down the axis of the stellar outflows, the visualization finishes with a side view that illustrates the nebula’s double-lobed structure.

Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon, J. DePasquale, L. Hustak, J. Olmstead, A. Pagan, D. Player, and F. Summers (STScI)
Music: “Cosmic Reef” by J. DePasquale (STScI)

Pan Across NGC 2014 & NGC 2020

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This video pans across a diverse landscape of colorful, iridescent gases, streamers of dust, and a plethora of brilliant newborn stars in the nebula NGC 2014, located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The camera then sweeps toward a blue ring of glowing oxygen in neighboring nebula NGC 2020. The blue gas is formed by a torrential gaseous outflow from a lone, massive, super-hot star at its center.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Pagan (STScI)

Zoom to NGC 2014 & NGC 2020

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This video begins by zooming into the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, located 163,000 light-years away. The small galaxy is ablaze with new star formation. The camera zooms up on one such region, called NGC 2014, which is full of colorful, glowing gases energized by a central cluster of newborn stars. The blue, ring-like feature at lower left (NGC 2020) is formed by a torrential gaseous outflow from a lone, massive, super-hot star at its center.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Pagan (STScI)
Acknowledgement: A. Fujii and Digitized Sky Survey

Exoplanets: A Search for New Worlds

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Nestor Espinoza, Space Telescope Science Institute

Is the Solar System we call home special? Three decades of advances in astronomy have revealed that our home planet is only one small dot in a vast sea of planetary systems in our galaxy. These extra-solar planets—or exoplanets—have been discovered by the thousands, and are challenging our understanding of how planetary systems form and develop. But what are they made of? And how did they get there? We don’t have the answers yet, but we do have some important clues. Join us on this cosmic voyage across our galaxy to explore new worlds beyond our wildest dreams.

Recorded live on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

More information: www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

The Hubble Space Telescope: Three Decades of Discovery

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This montage of more than 600 images from the Hubble Space Telescope celebrates the telescope’s 30 years of discovery. From our own cosmic neighborhood to the far reaches of the universe, Hubble has opened our eyes to breathtaking new views of the cosmos. The rapid sequence echoes Hubble’s fast pace of exploration. Though numerous, these images are just a glimpse of the data collected by Hubble over the past 30 years, and only a tiny sliver of our vast universe.
https://hubblesite.org/30

CREDITS:
NASA, ESA, D. Player, J. DePasquale, and M. Carruthers (STScI)
Music: J. DePasquale