Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by
Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years.
After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating
Astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the "final frontier" it was perusing.
Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."
After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating
Astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the "final frontier" it was perusing.
Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."
Tenth Place: - The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar
nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.
Ninth Place: - The glowering eyes from 114 million
light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC
2207
and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation
Eighth Place: - Starry Night, so named because it
reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around
a star in the Milky Way
Seventh Place: - The Perfect Storm, a small region in
the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of
hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.
Sixth Place: - In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The
part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23
million return trips to the Moon).
Fifth Place: - The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light
years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it
are
weaker at the centre.
weaker at the centre.
Fourth Place: - At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula
Third Place: - In third place is Nebula NGC 2392,
called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The
hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying
star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.
Second Place: - The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and
gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using
ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth
ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth
First Place: - The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light
years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The
dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years
across.
dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years
across.
