Space Universe🌌

Nestled atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket, the James Webb Space Telescope rolled out to the launchpad on Dec. 23, 2021, at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Webb will study every phase of the cosmos—from our own solar system to galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago, just after the Big Bang. A colossal collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, Webb will revolutionize our understanding of the universe. Liftoff is set for Dec. 25 at 7:20 a.m. EST (12:20 UTC)

Why can you see the Moon during the day? 🌕 Easy, because it’s there! It may seem odd to look up at the daytime sky and see the Moon but it’s perfectly natural. Planetary geologist Sarah Noble breaks it down so you know when to look up.

Celestial lightsaber? 👀 Not quite. This is a Herbig-Haro object, which forms when a newborn star shoots twin jets out into space – sort of like a birth announcement to the universe! Called HH24, this object is located inside a turbulent starbirth region known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away. Visualization credits: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz3D Team, STScI); Acknowledgment: A. Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), Palomar/Caltech, UKSTU/AAO, T. Rector (U Alaska Anchorage), H. Schweiker (WIYN), NOAO/AURA/NSF, Gemini Observatory, C. Aspin, the Hubble Heritage/Hubble-Europe Collaboration, D. Padgett (GSFC), T. Megeath (U Toledo), and B. Reipurth (U Hawaii) Music credit: “Beyond Limits,” Stefan Merz [GEMA], Ed.Berlin Production Music / Universal Production Music GmbH [GEMA]

🌌 Happy Hubble Friday! This week’s image shows the spiral galaxy UGC 11537, which lies about 230 million light-years away. The two foreground stars are making a cosmic photobomb, as they’re actually within our galaxy, the Milky Way. Because UGC 11537 lies close to the plane of the Milky Way, these two stars crept into the image. Hubble captured this view in visible and infrared light using Wide Field Camera 3. Find out more at the link in our bio! Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Seth

Happy #InternationalMountainDay! ⛰ Hubble viewed its very own celestial "Mystic Mountain" in the Carina Nebula. This three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust is located about 7,500 light-years away from us. This infrared view shows reveals stars behind the gaseous veil of the nebula's wall of hydrogen, laced with dust. The foreground pillar becomes semi-transparent because infrared light from background stars penetrates through much of the dust. And if you haven't heard: The NASA Webb Space Telescope launches later this month, and with its powerful infrared capabilities, we’ll see spectacular infrared views of our universe! Image credits: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

🔴 Red Bubble 🔴 The nebula SNR 0509-67.5 (nicknamed the Red Bubble) is the result of a supernova explosion of a star! This sphere of gas is the result of gas that’s being shocked by the expanding blast wave of the supernova. The Red Bubble is 23 light-years across and is expanding at a rate of about 11 million miles per hour (5,000 kilometers per second)! Visualization credits: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon, T. Borders, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (STScI) Music credits: “Hoops and Hurdles,” Jonathan Raynal [SACEM], KTSA Publishing [SACEM], Universal Production Music

Journey to the center of the Milky Way! Hubble helped detect evidence that our galaxy’s central black hole has a "mini-jet" that ejects superheated material. It periodically “hiccups” as stars and gas clouds fall into it! This image of our galactic center features Hubble data. Find out more at the link in our bio! Image credits: NASA, ESA, and Gerald Cecil (UNC-Chapel Hill); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Ten years ago, Hubble showed us this “snow angel” 😇 Called S106, this star-forming region is about 2,000 light-years away and resides in a relatively isolated part of our Milky Way Galaxy. This Hubble Classic view stretches several light-years across! Image credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Hubble 🤝 Chandra This image of the Jewel Bug Nebula contains both visible light data from Hubble and X-ray data from NASA ChandraXray, giving us a more complete (and stunning!) understanding of this cosmic object. Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/SAO/J.Kastner; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI/Univ. Washington, B.Balick)

Servicing Mission 3A launched in 1999 to “wake up” Hubble after the telescope switched into safe mode following the failures of four of its six gyroscopes. Music credit: “Achieving the Impossible” by Joel Goodman [ASCAP] and Vicente Julio Ortiz Gimeno [SGAE] via Medley Lane Music [ASCAP] and Universal Production Music

We can’t wait to explore the universe with NASAwebb! Hubble has helped pave Webb’s scientific path by making preparatory observations. For example, Hubble surveyed the star cluster Westerlund 2, located about 20,000 light-years away. One of Webb’s main goals is to observe the birth of stars and protoplanetary systems. Using Hubble, astronomers looked for binary stars in their earliest stages of development, where they are likely to be surrounded by protoplanetary disks – disks of dense gas and dust that encircle newly formed stars and eventually form into planets. Westerlund 2 contains many binary stars, and is a prime candidate for future Webb observations. Webb will launch no earlier than December 24. With its powerful infrared vision, our view of the universe is about to change forever! But don’t worry – we aren’t going anywhere! With their complementary abilities, Hubble and Webb will work together to give us a more complete understanding of our universe. Image credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Herit

Now presenting… NGC 3568! This HubbleFriday image shows a spectacular galaxy that’s about 57 million light-years from our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. Fun fact: In 2014, light from a supernova explosion within NGC 3568 reached Earth. It was discovered by amateur astronomers from the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search in New Zealand. Find out more at the link in our bio! Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun