1/ 📢 Hubble’s sharp view captures spokes in #Saturn's rings — the enigmatic features whose presence and appearance vary with the Saturn seasons. The two smudgy spokes can be seen in the B ring, on the left in the image. 👇 esahubble.org/images/opo2305…
2/ Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, each of them lasting around seven Earth years. Equinox marks the height of spokes’ visibility, while during a solstice the spokes disappear.
3/ The spokes don't last long and their shape and shading varies, they can appear light or dark. They may be caused by the interaction between Saturn's magnetic field and the solar wind, which may also cause aurorae.
4/ The hypothesis is that spokes are dust-sized, icy ring particles being electrically charged and levitated, but this has not been confirmed. With Cassini's mission completed, Hubble is continuing the work of monitoring changes on Saturn.
1/ 🆕 Three moments in a far-off supernova explosion have been captured by Hubble. The progenitor star exploded over 11 billion years ago. This is the first detailed look at a supernova at such an early time in the Universe’s evolution.
2/ This observation was possible due to gravitational lensing: light from distant stars is bent by the gravity of massive galaxies in the way. This light took 3 different paths through the cosmic lens of galaxy cluster Abell 370, showing the supernova in 3 stages of evolution.
3/ Hubble also captured the supernova’s changing colour, indicating its changing temperature. For the first time, astronomers have also been able to measure the size of a dying star in the early Universe. This progenitor star was about 500 times larger than the Sun.
1/ Following six years of meticulous observations, Hubble has, for the first time ever, provided direct evidence for a lone black hole drifting through interstellar space by a precise mass measurement of the phantom object. 👇
2/ Astronomers estimate that 100 million black holes roam among the stars in our Milky Way galaxy, but they had never conclusively identified an isolated black hole before.
@esa 3/ Until now, all black hole masses have been inferred statistically or through interactions in binary systems or in the cores of galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes are usually found with companion stars, making this one unusual.
1/ Using observations from the @HUBBLE_space , as well as @GeminiObs & the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, researchers explain why Uranus and Neptune are different colours 🔗 esahubble.org/news/heic2209/
@GeminiObs 2/ A new atmosphere model reveals that excess haze on Uranus builds up in the planet’s stagnant, sluggish atmosphere and makes it appear a lighter tone than Neptune.
Credit ⬆: @NASA / @esa A. Simon ( @NASAGoddard ), and M. H. Wong ( @UCBerkeley ) and the OPAL team
@GeminiObs@NASA@esa@NASAGoddard@UCBerkeley 3/ Neptune and Uranus have much in common — similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions — yet their appearances are notably different. Astronomers now have an explanation for why the two planets are different colours.
1/ 🥳 Happy 32, dear Hubble! To celebrate this anniversary, here is an unusual Hubble snapshot: a close-knit collection of five galaxies: the Hickson Compact Group 40. #Hubble32
2/ This menagerie includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies have crossed paths to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.
3/ Caught in a leisurely gravitational dance, the whole group is so crowded that it could fit within a region of space that is less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disc.
Breaking News 📣 #Hubble breaks new record detecting the most distant individual star ever seen. Nicknamed Earendel by the authors, this star existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang 🎆
📌 The newly detected star is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it did when the Universe was only 7% of its current age.
🗨️ "It’s like we’ve been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the 2nd chapter & now we will have a chance to see how it all got started,” said astronomer Brian Welch of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of the paper
1/6 Here it is! The anniversary image of #Hubble30 features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020, part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Credit: @NASA / @ESA and @stsci spacetelescope.org/news/heic2007/
2/6 To commemorate three decades of scientific discoveries using @Hubble_Space , this image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime.
3/6 Although NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 appear to be separate in this visible-light image, they are actually part of one giant star formation complex.
Credit: @ESA / @Hubble_Space / Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin