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| Hubble captures bubbles and baby stars [heic1011] |
| A spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image - one of the largest ever released of a star-forming region - highlights N11, part of a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star formation is one of the most active in the nearby Universe. |
| Date: 22 Jun 2010 |
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| Hubble scrutinises site of mysterious flash and missing cloud belt on Jupiter [heic1010] |
| New and detailed observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have provided insights into two recent events on Jupiter: the mysterious flash of light seen on 3 June and the recent disappearance of the planet's dark Southern Equatorial Belt. |
| Date: 16 Jun 2010 |
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| Hubble catches stars on the move [heic1009] |
| By exploiting the exquisite image quality of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and comparing two observations made ten years apart astronomers have, for the first time, managed to measure the tiny motions of several hundred young stars within the central cluster of the star-forming region NGC 3603. The team was surprised to find that the stars are moving in ways that are at odds with the current understanding of how such clusters evolve. The stars in the cluster have not "settled down" as expected. |
| Date: 02 Jun 2010 |
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| Hubble catches heavyweight runaway star speeding from 30 Doradus [heic1008] |
| A heavy runaway star is rushing away from a nearby stellar nursery at more than 400 000 kilometres per hour, a speed that would get you to the Moon and back in two hours. The runaway is the most extreme case of a very massive star that has been kicked out of its home by a group of even heftier siblings. Tantalising clues from three observatories, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's newly installed Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), and some old-fashioned detective work, suggest that the star may have travelled about 375 light-years from its suspected home, a giant star cluster called R136. |
| Date: 11 May 2010 |
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| Starry-eyed Hubble celebrates 20 years of awe and discovery [heic1007] |
| The most prolific space observatory zooms past a milestone of 20 years of operation. On 24 April 1990, the Space Shuttle and crew of STS-31 were launched to deploy the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope into a low-Earth orbit. What followed was one of the most remarkable sagas of the space age. |
| Date: 23 Apr 2010 |
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| Hubble snaps heavyweight of the Leo Triplet [heic1006] |
| Hubble has snapped a spectacular view of the largest "player" in the Leo Triplet, a galaxy with an unusual anatomy: it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core. The peculiar anatomy is most likely caused by the gravitational pull of the other two members of the trio. |
| Date: 08 Apr 2010 |
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| Hubble confirms cosmic acceleration with weak lensing [heic1005] |
| A new study led by European scientists presents the most comprehensive analysis of data from the most ambitious survey ever undertaken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These researchers have, for the first time ever, used Hubble data to probe the effects of the natural gravitational "weak lenses" in space and characterise the expansion of the Universe. |
| Date: 25 Mar 2010 |
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| Bully galaxy rules the neighbourhood [heic1004] |
| In general, galaxies can be thought of as "social" - hanging out in groups and frequently interacting. However, this recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image highlights how some galaxies appear to be hungry loners. These cosmic oddities have set astronomers on the "case of the missing neighbour galaxies". |
| Date: 04 Mar 2010 |
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| Saturn's aurorae offer stunning double show [heic1003] |
| Researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope recently took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring both of the giant planet's poles. Saturn is only in this position every 15 years and this favourable orientation has allowed a sustained study of Saturn's almost symmetric northern and southern lights. |
| Date: 11 Feb 2010 |
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| Forming the present-day spiral galaxies [heic1002] |
| Using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have, for the first time, created a demographic census of galaxy types and shapes from a time before the Earth and the Sun existed, to the present day. The results show that, contrary to contemporary thought, more than half of the present-day spiral galaxies had so-called peculiar shapes only 6000 million years ago, which, if confirmed, highlights the importance of collisions and mergers in the recent past of many galaxies. It also provides clues for the unique status of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. |
| Date: 04 Feb 2010 |
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| Hubble finds most distant primeval galaxies [heic1001] |
| The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has broken the distance limit for galaxies and uncovered a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. The data from the Hubble's new infrared camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), on the Ultra Deep Field (taken in August 2009) have been analysed by five international teams of astronomers. Some of these early results are being presented by various team members on 6 January 2010, at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC, USA. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2010 |
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| Vampires and collisions rejuvenate stars [heic0918] |
| Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered two distinct kinds of "rejuvenated" stars in the globular cluster Messier 30. A new study shows that both stellar collisions and a process sometimes called vampirism are behind this cosmic "face lift". The scientists also uncover evidence that both sorts of blue stragglers were produced during a critical dynamical event (known as "core collapse") that occurred in Messier 30 a few thousand million years ago. |
| Date: 23 Dec 2009 |
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| Born in beauty: proplyds in the Orion Nebula [heic0917] |
| A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation. Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths. |
| Date: 14 Dec 2009 |
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| Hubble's deepest view of Universe unveils never-before-seen galaxies [heic0916] |
| The new Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the deepest image yet of the Universe in near-infrared light. The faintest and reddest objects in the image are likely the oldest galaxies ever identified, having formed between only 600-900 million years after the Big Bang. |
| Date: 08 Dec 2009 |
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| Blushing dusty nebula [heic0915] |
| A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of part of NGC 7023, or the Iris Nebula, highlights a perfect dust laboratory in the sky. |
| Date: 01 Dec 2009 |
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| Baffling boxy bulge [heic0914] |
| The evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzles astronomers. A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4710 is part of a survey that has been conducted to learn more about the formation of bulges, which are a substantial component of most spiral galaxies. |
| Date: 18 Nov 2009 |
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| Opening up a colourful cosmic Jewel Box [heic0913] |
| The combination of images taken by three exceptional telescopes: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory has allowed the stunning Jewel Box star cluster to be seen in a whole new light. |
| Date: 29 Oct 2009 |
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| Sky merger yields sparkling dividends [heic0912] |
| A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble our own Milky Way smashing together at breakneck speeds. The product of this dramatic collision, called NGC 2623, or Arp 243, is about 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Cancer (the Crab). |
| Date: 13 Oct 2009 |
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| Mission extensions approved for science missions |
| ESA's Science Programme Committee has approved the extension of mission operations for XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, Venus Express, Mars Express and Cluster, as well as the ESA support to the operations of HST and SOHO, until 31 December 2012. An additional year of operations has been approved for Planck. |
| Date: 07 Oct 2009 |
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| Stripped down: Hubble highlights two galaxies that are losing it [heic0911] |
| A newly released set of images, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope before the recent Servicing Mission, highlights the ongoing drama in two galaxies in the Virgo Cluster affected by a process known as "ram pressure stripping", which can result in peculiar-looking galaxies. An extremely hot X-ray emitting gas known as the intra-cluster medium lurks between galaxies within clusters. As galaxies move through this intra-cluster medium, strong winds rip through galaxies distorting their shape and even halting star formation. |
| Date: 30 Sep 2009 |
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