Image Archive: Illustrations

Preview image from MAST of one of the NIRSpec/MSA spectra of GN-z11

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:00:00 +0200

This image shows a preview from MAST of one of the NIRSpec/MSA spectra of GN-z11.

Size distribution for unknown asteroids in Hubble asteroid hunter survey

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0200

This graph is based on Hubble Space Telescope archival data that were used to identify a largely unseen population of very small asteroids. The asteroids were not the intended targets, but instead photobombed background stars and galaxies in Hubble images. The comprehensive treasure hunt required perusing 37 000 Hubble images spanning 19 years. This was accomplished by using ‘citizen science’ volunteers and artificial intelligence algorithms. The payoff was finding 1701 trails of previously undetected asteroids.

[Image description: This graph plots the size of asteroids versus their abundance, based on a Hubble Space Telescope archival survey that found 1701 mostly previously undetected asteroids lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The vertical axis lists the number of objects from zero to 70. The horizontal axis lists size, from zero kilometres on the left, to 2 kilometres on the right. The graph slopes up such that the most abundant asteroids detected by Hubble in the survey are 0.5 kilometres across in size.]

Brown dwarf (artist’s concept)

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 15:00:00 +0100

This is an artist’s representation of a brown dwarf. This class of object is too large to be a planet (and did not form in the same way), but is too small to be a star because it cannot sustain nuclear fusion, since it is less massive than even the smallest stars. A brown dwarf is likely to be marked by wind-driven horizontal bands of thick clouds that may alternate with relatively cloud-free bands, giving the object a striped appearance. Whirling storm systems as big as terrestrial continents, or even small planets, might exist.

The name ‘brown dwarf’ is actually a misnomer because the object would typically appear red to the naked eye. It is brightest in infrared light. Many brown dwarfs have binary companions. But as they age, the binary system drifts apart and each dwarf goes its separate way, according to a recent Hubble Space Telescope study.

The background stars in this illustration are a science visualisation assembled from the Gaia spacecraft star catalogue. The synthesised stars are accurate in terms of position, brightness, and colour. Because this is not an image of the Milky Way, missing are glowing nebulae and dark dust clouds.

[Image description: This artist’s representation shows a brown dwarf, an object more massive than a planet but smaller than a star. The dwarf is a cherry-red sphere. It has horizontal stripes of various shades of red that are cloud bands. In the dark background there are myriad stars that are inside our Milky Way galaxy.]

Exoplanet GJ 9827d (artist’s concept)

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0100

This is an artist’s conception of the exoplanet GJ 9827d, the smallest exoplanet where water vapour has been detected in its atmosphere. The planet could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy. It is a rocky world, only about twice Earth’s diameter. It orbits the red dwarf star GJ 9827. Two inner planets in the system are on the left. The background stars are plotted as they would be seen to the unaided eye looking back toward our Sun, which itself is too faint to be seen. The blue star at upper right is Regulus, the yellow star at bottom centre is Denebola, and the blue star at bottom right is Spica. The constellation Leo is on the left, and Virgo is on the right. Both constellations are distorted from our Earth-bound view from 97 light-years away.

[Image description: Occupying the upper half of this illustration is a foreground exoplanet, partly in shadow, with subtle blue and white atmospheric features along the crescent closest to the star. The planet appears above a red dwarf star, which is represented by a smaller reddish-white, mottled globe at the bottom left. Two other planets in this system are to the left and right of the red dwarf star. The planet to the star’s left is tiny, appears fully lit, and is closest to the star. The second planet is slightly larger, but appears farther away, about midway between the star and the foreground exoplanet. It is in shadow, with only the crescent facing the star bathed in light.]

WASP 121-b (artist’s impression)

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0100

This is an artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP 121-b, also known as Tylos. The exoplanet’s appearance is based on Hubble data of the object. Using Hubble observations, another team of scientists had previously reported the detection of heavy metals such as magnesium and iron escaping from the upper atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter exoplanet, marking it as the first of such detection. The exoplanet is orbiting dangerously close to its host star, roughly 2.6% of the distance between Earth and the Sun, placing it on the verge of being ripped apart by its host star's tidal forces. The powerful gravitational forces have altered the planet's shape.

An international team of astronomers assembled and reprocessed Hubble observations of the exoplanet made in the years 2016, 2018 and 2019. This provided them with a unique dataset that allowed them not only to analyse the atmosphere of WASP 121-b, but also to compare the state of the exoplanet’s atmosphere across several years. They found clear evidence that the observations of WASP-121 b were varying in time. The team then used sophisticated modelling techniques to demonstrate that these temporal variations could be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

[Image description: An artist impression depicting the exoplanet WASP 121-b. The planet dominates the foreground in the right side of the image, and appears banded with colours of red, yellow and orange. Behind the planet is a large star that appears similar in size to the exoplanet.]

Banner for the “Stars, Gas & Dust in the Universe” Conference

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0100

This image shows the banner for the “Stars, Gas & Dust in the Universe” conference. This is the latest in a series of ESA-sponsored conferences, in collaboration with STScI, which highlight science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The event will be held in Porto, Portugal from 29 April to 2 May 2024, in the week after the 34th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.

Cover page of the 2024 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb calendar

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0100

This is the cover page for the 2024 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb Calendar, featuring images released in 2023. The electronic version of the calendar is available in digital (low and high resolution) and print-ready versions for everyone to share and enjoy.

Comparison of transit paths

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 16:00:00 +0100

This diagram compares two scenarios for how an Earth-sized exoplanet is passing in front of its host star. The bottom path shows the planet just grazing the star. Studying the light from such a transit could lead to an inaccurate estimate of the planet’s size, making it seem smaller than it really is. The top path shows the optimum geometry, where the planet transits the full disk of the star. Hubble Space Telescope’s accuracy can distinguish between these two scenarios, yielding a precise measurement of the planet’s diameter.

[Image description: A red giant star is in the centre of the image. An exoplanet passing in front of the star (called a transit) is shown in silhouette in a number of steps from left to right. A similar linear trajectory is shown at the bottom of the image. It is called a grazing transit rather than a full transit because it just clips the bottom of the star. This is considered a less accurate observing geometry in estimating the planet’s size. Hubble’s accuracy can distinguish between these two scenarios, yielding a precise measurement of the planet’s diameter.]

Artist’s concept of exoplanet LTT 1445ac

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 16:00:00 +0100

This is an artist’s concept of the nearby exoplanet, LTT 1445Ac, which is the size of Earth. The planet orbits a red dwarf star. The star is in a triple system, with two closely orbiting red dwarfs seen at upper right. The black dot in front of the foreground star is planet LTT 1445Ab, transiting the face of the star. Exoplanet LTT 1445Ac has a surface temperature of roughly 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The view is from 22 light-years away, looking back toward our Sun, which is the bright dot at lower right. Some of the background stars are part of the constellation Boötes.

[Image description: This is an artist’s concept of nearby exoplanet LTT 1445Ac, which appears as a large whitish-orange disk at lower left. The rocky planet orbits a red dwarf star which is a bright red sphere in the image centre. The star is in a triple system, with two closely orbiting red dwarfs – a pair of red dots – seen at upper right.]

Artist’s Concept of Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0200

This is an artist’s concept of one of the brightest explosions ever seen in space. Called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), it shines intensely in blue light and evolves rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or months to dim. Only a handful of previous LFBOTs have been discovered since 2018. And they all happen inside galaxies where stars are being born. But as this illustration shows, the LFBOT flash discovered in 2023 by Hubble was seen between galaxies. This only compounds the mystery of what these transient events are. Because astronomers don’t know the underlying process behind LFBOTs, the explosion shown here is purely conjecture based on some known transient phenomenon.

[Image Description: An illustration of one of brightest explosions ever seen in space. Called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LBOT), it shines intensely in blue light. It appears as a bright white blob left of centre where blue-white and red rays sprout out from it. Toward the right of the image there is a white spiral galaxy. To the upper left is another whitish galaxy shaped like a cigar. The LFBOT doesn’t seem to be associated with either galaxy.]

Neptune cloud cover over three decades

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0200

This sequence of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. This nearly-30-year-long set of observations shows that the number of clouds grows increasingly following a peak in the solar cycle – where the Sun’s level of activity rhythmically rises and falls over an 11-year period.

The Sun’s level of ultraviolet radiation is plotted in the vertical axis. The 11-year cycle is plotted along the bottom from 1994 to 2022. The Hubble observations along the top, clearly show a correlation between cloud abundance and solar peak of activity.

The theory is that the increased ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, during its peak of activity, causes chemical changes deep in Neptune’s atmosphere. After a couple years this eventually percolates into the upper atmosphere to form clouds.

The findings are published in the journal Icarus.

[Image description: This graphic shows a scientific plot in the form of a graph displaying changes in Neptune’s cloud cover compared to the 11-year-long repeating solar cycle of relative activity and inactivity on the Sun’s surface. The vertical axis plots the level of ultraviolet radiation coming from the Sun. The horizontal axis is a timeline from the years 1994 to 2022. Seven Hubble photos of Neptune taken in the years 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2020 are plotted above the graph. The planet is blue (due to methane absorption of red light in its atmosphere) and the high-altitude, cirrus-like clouds are white. A comparison of Neptune’s waxing and waning amount of cloud cover corresponds to peaks in the solar cycle. This graph clearly demonstrates the level of solar activity influences Neptune’s weather.]

Neptune cloud cover over three decades

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0200

This sequence of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. This long set of observations shows that the number of clouds grows increasingly following a peak in the solar cycle – where the Sun’s level of activity rhythmically rises and falls over an 11-year period.

In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft provided the first close-up images of linear, bright clouds, reminiscent of cirrus clouds on Earth, seen high in Neptune’s atmosphere. They form above most of the methane in Neptune’s atmosphere and consequently are not blue, but reflect all colours of sunlight. Hubble picks up where the brief Voyager flyby left off by continually keeping an eye on the planet yearly.

The findings are published in the journal Icarus.

[Image description: This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune taken in the years 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002 (top row) and 2006, 2010, 2015, 2020 (bottom row). The planet is blue (due to methane absorption of red light in its atmosphere) and the high-altitude, cirrus-like clouds are white. A comparison of Neptune’s cloud cover corresponds to peaks in the 11-year-long repeating solar cycle where the Sun’s level of activity rhythmically rises and falls.]

Hubble sees boulders escaping from asteroid Dimorphos (annotated)

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 16:00:00 +0200

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on 19 December 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission. Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the force of the collision. These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the Solar System. The ejected boulders range in size from 1 metre to 6.7 metres across, based on Hubble photometry. They are drifting away from the asteroid at around a kilometre per hour. The discovery yields invaluable insights into the behaviour of a small asteroid when it is hit by a projectile for the purpose of altering its trajectory.

[Image Description: The bright white object at lower left is the asteroid Dimorphos. It has a blue dust tail extending diagonally to the upper right. A cluster of blue dots surrounds the asteroid. These are boulders that were knocked off the asteroid when, on 26 September 2022, NASA deliberately slammed the half-tonne DART impactor spacecraft into the asteroid as a test of what it would take to deflect some future asteroid from hitting Earth. Hubble photographed the slow-moving boulders in December 2022.]

Hubble images TW Hydrae Disc Shadows (annotated)

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:00 +0200

Comparison images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, taken several years apart, have uncovered two eerie shadows moving counterclockwise across a disc of gas and dust encircling the young star TW Hydrae. The discs are tilted face-on as seen from Earth and so give astronomers a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening around the star. The left image, taken in 2016, shows just one shadow [A] at the 11 o’clock position. This shadow is cast by an inner disc that is slightly inclined to the outer disc and so blocks starlight. The picture on the left shows a second shadow that emerged from yet another nested disc at the 7 o’clock position, as photographed in 2021. What was originally the inner disc is marked [B] in this later view. The shadows rotate around the star at different rates like the hand on a clock. They are evidence for two unseen planets that have pulled dust into their orbits. This makes them slightly inclined to each other. This is a visible-light photo taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Artificial colour has been added to enhance details.

[Image description: This Hubble Space Telescope Image shows two side-by -side circles that are photos, taken in 2016 and 2021, of nested discs of gas and dust encircling the star TW Hydrae. The view is looking down on top of the discs. In the left image a shadow can be seen at the 11 o’clock position. A later image, on the right, shows two shadows at the 11 o’clock and 7 o’clock positions. This is evidence for two nested discs that are inclined at different angles.]

Concentric gas and dust discs around the star TW Hydrae

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:00 +0200

This illustration is based on NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images of a gas and dust discs encircling the young star TW Hydrae. Hubble photos show shadows sweeping across the discs encircling the system. The interpretation is that these shadows are from slightly inclined inner discs that block starlight from reaching the outer disc, and therefore cast a shadow. The discs are slightly inclined to each other because of the gravitational pull of unseen planets warping the disc structure.

[Image description: This illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope images of gas and dust discs encircling the young star TW Hydrae. We have an oblique view of three concentric rings of dust and gas. At the centre is the bright white glow of the central star. The reddish-coloured rings are inclined to each other and are therefore casting dark shadows across the outermost ring.]

Hubble images TW Hydrae Disc Shadows (clean)

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:00 +0200

Comparison images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, taken several years apart, have uncovered two eerie shadows moving counterclockwise across a disc of gas and dust disc encircling the young star TW Hydrae. The discs are tilted face-on as seen from Earth and so give astronomers a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening around the star. The left image, taken in 2016, shows just one shadow at the 11 o’clock position. This shadow is cast by an inner disc that is slightly inclined to the outer disc and so blocks starlight. The picture on the left shows a second shadow that emerged from yet another nested disc at the 7 o’clock position, as photographed in 2021. The shadows rotate around the star at different rates like the hands of a clock. They are evidence for two unseen planets that have pulled dust into their orbits. This makes them slightly inclined to each other. This is a-visible light photo taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Artificial colour has been added to enhance details.

Hubble captures DART asteroid impact debris (clean)

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0100

These three panels capture the breakup of the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA’s 545-kilogram Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft on 26 September 2022. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope had a ringside view of the space demolition derby. The top panel, taken 2 hours after impact, shows an ejecta cone of an estimated 900,000 kilograms of dust.

The centre frame shows the dynamic interaction within the asteroid’s binary system that starts to distort the cone shape of the ejecta pattern about 17 hours after the impact. The most prominent structures are rotating, pinwheel-shaped features. The pinwheel is tied to the gravitational pull of the companion asteroid, Didymos.

In the bottom frame Hubble next captures the debris being swept back into a comet-like tail by the pressure of sunlight on the tiny dust particles. This stretches out into a debris train where the lightest particles travel the fastest and farthest from the asteroid. The mystery is compounded when Hubble records the tail splitting in two for a few days.

[Image Description: Three labelled images are stacked vertically. All three images show a bright white spot in the centre surrounded by an irregular cloud of blue that decreases in brightness with distance from the bright spot. The size and shape of the blue cloud are different in each image, as are the labels. In all three images the background is black and there are subtle diffraction spikes radiating from the bright spot.]

Hubble captures DART asteroid impact debris (annotated 2)

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0100

Hubble captures DART asteroid impact debris (annotated 1)

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0100

Cover Page of the 2023 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb Calendar

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0100

This is the cover page for the 2023 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb Calendar, featuring images released in 2022.

The electronic version of the calendar is available in digital (low and high resolution) and print-ready versions for everyone to share and enjoy.

Artist’s Illustration Of Kepler 138 Planetary System

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0100

In this illustration the super-Earth, Kepler-138d is in the foreground. To the left, the planet Kepler-138c, and in the background the planet Kepler 138b, seen in silhouette transiting its central star. Kepler 138 is a red dwarf star located 218 light-years away. The low density of Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d — which are nearly identical in size — means that they must be composed largely of water. They are both twice Earth’s mass but have roughly half of Earth’s density, and therefore cannot be solid rock. This is based on measurements of their mass vs. physical diameter. They are considered a new class of “water-planet,” unlike any major planet found in our solar system. Kepler-138 b is one of the smallest exoplanets known, having the mass of the planet Mars and the density of rock.

[Image Description: Illustration of three planets and their star on the black background of space speckled with dots of different colors. The planets are various sizes, indicating different distances from the viewer and from the star. The largest, foreground planet, is at the upper right, and is grayish white with bands of clouds.]

Hubble Detects Ghostly Glow Surrounding Our Solar System

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 16:00:00 +0100

A survey of the residual light in the night sky has uncovered an eerie, omnipresent glow spread throughout the Solar System, thought to be caused by sunlight reflected from cometary dust.

Over its thirty-plus years of operations, astronomers have become accustomed to subtracting the background light from the Solar System from Hubble’s images. They are interested in the faint, discrete objects that are other stars and galaxies. But the SKYSURF team realised that Hubble’s images would be an excellent set of survey data to measure the Solar System’s background light.

The SKYSURF programme used 200,000 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to look for any residual background light in the sky. This would be any leftover light after subtracting the glow from planets, stars, galaxies, and from dust in the plane of our solar system (called zodiacal light). The excess that they found was extremely faint – equivalent to the steady glow of 10 fireflies spread across the entire sky.

The researchers say that one possible explanation for this residual glow is that our inner solar system contains a tenuous sphere of dust from comets that are falling into the solar system from all directions, and that the glow is sunlight reflecting off this dust. If real, this dust shell could be a new addition to the known architecture of the solar system.

[Image Description: Illustration shows a simple diagram of the Solar System with white speckling representing comet dust. The Sun is represented as a fuzzy yellow sphere at the center. It is surrounded by four concentric ovals labeled 'Planetary Orbits', which represent the orbital paths of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as viewed from an oblique angle to the orbital plane.]

eHST User Interface

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 11:00:00 +0100

This is a screenshot from eHST showing the integration of ESASky with Hubble data footprints and files for a target of interest; the subset panel is the image visualisation tool for one of the selected files.

eHST User Interface

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 11:00:00 +0100

This is a screenshot from eHST showing publications related to a target of interest, with links to the datafiles from a given programme (in subset panel).

eHST User Interface

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 11:00:00 +0100

This is a screenshot of the new eHST home user interface.