I don’t usually post images of deep-space objects here but I had to make an exception for this one. With its most recent set of optics, installed in May 2009 during the STS-125 servicing mission (SM4), the Hubble Space Telescope is returning amazingly detailed images of distant, exotic objects – like the butterfly-shaped planetary nebula NGC 6302,…
Tag: Hubble
Sun Crossing
This amazing image was taken by NASA photographer Thierry Legault at 12:17 EST on May 13 as the shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Space Telescope passed in front of the sun, a fleeting transit lasting only .8 seconds. More images of this and the previous day’s transit can be found on Legault’s website. Mission astronauts…
A Procession of Moons
With Saturn angled such that its ring plane is aligned with Earth’s orbit, its rings appear as a thin band and several of its moons can be seen crossing its face in this photo, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on February 24, 2009. The smaller moons closer to the rings are, left to…
Lights in the Dark 