Happy Twosday! Why numbers like 2/22/22 have been too fascinating for over 2,000 years
Barry Markovsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of South Carolina
Is “Twosday” as special as some corners of the internet seem to think? articular/iStock via Getty Images Plus
This Feb. 22, the world hits an unprecedented milestone. It’s the date itself: 2/22/22. And this so-called “Twosday” falls on a Tuesday, no less.
It’s true the number pattern stands out, impossible to miss. But does it mean anything? Judging by the thousands of commemorative products available for purchase online, it may appear to.
“Twosday” carries absolutely no historical significance or any cosmic message. Yet it does speak volumes about our brains and cultures.
I’m a social psychologist who studies how paranormal claims and pseudoscience take hold as popular beliefs. They’re nearly always absurd from a scientific perspective, but they’re great for illustrating how brains, people, groups and cultures work together to create shared meaning.
Seeing patterns
Twosday isn’t the only date with a striking pattern. This century alone has had a couple Onesdays (1/11/11 and 11/11/11), and 11 other months with repetitions such as 01/01/01, 06/06/06 and 12/12/12. We’ll hit Threesday, 3/3/33, in 11 years, and Foursday 11 years after that.
The brain has evolved a fantastic capacity to find meanings and connections. Doing so once meant the difference between survival and death. Recognizing paw prints in the soil, for example, signified dangerous predators to be avoided, or prey to be captured and consumed. Changes in daylight indicated when to plant crops and when to harvest them.
Even when survival isn’t at stake, it’s rewarding to detect a pattern such as a familiar face or song. Finding one, the brain zaps its synapses with a little shot of dopamine, incentivizing itself to keep finding more patterns.
When a number sequence seems to jump out at us, this is an example of apophenia: perceiving meaningful connections between unrelated things. The term was first developed to characterize a symptom of schizophrenia.
Another example of apophenia is astrology, which visually connects stars into constellations. These are the familiar Zodiac signs such as “The Ram,” Aries; or “The Archer,” Sagittarius. Each sign is linked to meanings associated with its respective object. For example, people born under the sign of Aries are believed to be stubborn like rams. But those signs don’t exist in the sky in any physical sense, and the system fails scientific tests.
Reading into numbers
The date 2/22/22, though striking, carries no inherent meaning beyond its function in our particular calendar. This is true for numbers in general: Their meanings are limited to measuring, labeling or counting things.
“Twosday” is a simple example of a popular form of arithmetical shenanigans: numerology, the pseudoscientific practice of attaching supernatural significance to numbers.
Numerology can be traced back 2,500 years to the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, with alternative systems appearing elsewhere, including China and the Middle East.
Numerology may look mathematical, but it’s more akin to palmistry and reading tea leaves. It has been popularized through magazines, books, movies, television programs, websites and other social media. Assessing the extent of numerology’s popularity is difficult, but the belief that certain numbers are good or bad is common. For example, nearly a quarter of Americans say 7 is lucky.
There are many kinds of numerology. The most popular form assigns numbers to names or other words, and then calculates their “root,” also known as the “destiny number” or “expression number”. It starts by assigning a number to each letter of the alphabet: A = 1, B = 2, up to I = 9, then the cycle repeats with J = 1, K = 2, etc.
For example, adding up the five numbers in my own first name – 2, 1, 9, 9, and 7 – yields 28. To find the root, add the digits in 28 to get 10, and then add up those two digits to get 1. For my middle and last names, the roots are 4 and 9. Adding the three roots returns 14; adding those digits reveals that my “destiny number” is 5, which numerology associates with being free-thinking, adventurous, restless and impatient.
A woman calculates a destiny number based on numerology. Helin Loik-Tomson/iStock via Getty Images Plus
More than coincidence?
I was 10 years old when I first encountered numerology. A fellow coin collector showed me a clear plastic case holding two gleaming specimens: a copper Lincoln penny and a silver John F. Kennedy half dollar. On the back of the case was a printed label with numerical “facts” linking the two presidents. For example:
6: day of the week – Friday – of both assassinations
7: letters in Kennedy’s and Lincoln’s last names
15: letters in both assassins’ names
60: year elected – Lincoln 1860, Kennedy 1960
When you compile enough of these, it gets eerie. The experience was astonishing enough that I still recall it over a half-century later.
Are the Lincoln-Kennedy facts just coincidences? What gets overlooked is that they’ve been drawn from a pool of hundreds or thousands of numerical possibilities. Throw away the boring ones and you’ve framed the remaining coincidences in a way that gives them more credit than they deserve.
Another way of drawing eerie coincidences from very large pools of possibilities was exploited in “The Bible Code,” a best-selling book in the 1990s. The author, Michael Drosnin, took the Old Testament and arranged it into a grid of text. A computer algorithm highlighted skip patterns in the grid, such as “every 4th character”, or “2 across, 5 down,” to produce a huge database of letter strings. These were then sifted by another algorithm that searched for words and phrases, and distances between them.
The method seemed to foretell many historical events, including the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995: A particular skip pattern yielded his name near the phrase “assassin that will assassinate.”
Findings such as these can seem impressive. However, critics have proved that the method works just as well using any sufficiently lengthy text. Drosnin himself laid down this gauntlet by challenging critics to find Rabin’s assassination foretold in the novel “Moby-Dick.” Mathematician Brendan McKaydid exactly that, along with “prophecies” for many other deaths – Lincoln’s and Kennedy’s included.
Which coincidences people pay attention to is largely a social phenomenon. What sociologist Erich Goode terms “paranormalism,” a nonscientific approach to extraordinary claims, is sustained and transmitted by group customs, norms and institutions. “The Bible Code” couldn’t exist without religion, for example, and its popularity was fueled by mass media – such as its author’s interviews on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and elsewhere. In her book “Scientifical Americans,” science writer Sharon Hill makes a compelling case that popular culture in the U.S. helps to foster safe havens for individual and collective belief in the pseudoscientific and paranormal.
As for “Twosday,” I’ll conclude by plumbing its “hidden meaning.” Take the three roots of 02, 22 and 2022. We arrive at 2 + 4 + 6 = 12, and the destiny number 3. Some numerologists associate this number with optimism and joy. Though I may reject the messenger, I’ll accept that message.
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Barry Markovsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched, carrying the Hubble Space Telescope (HST, or just "Hubble"). This orbiting telescope was the first of NASA's Great Observatories. For more than 30 years, HST has provided astronomers with incredible scientific data on everything from solar system objects to some of the most distant galaxies in the cosmos. Hubble was named for American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who in the early 20th century helped establish that the universe is much bigger than the Milky Way and showed the cosmos is expanding.
Stacker collected 50 Hubble images, taken between 1990 and 2020, that express both the beauty of the universe and important scientific knowledge. HST is a bus-sized satellite containing a 2.4-meter-diameter mirror for focusing light from distant objects, along with a suite of instruments for photography, measuring light intensity, and taking the spectrum of various astronomical sources. Hubble is primarily an optical telescope, viewing the cosmos in the same type of light we can see, and it also has the ability to see into the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum of light. The size of the telescope and its location above Earth's atmosphere (with its pesky weather and distortions from air currents) make HST one of the best optical telescopes still in operation.
HST is jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency and was designed to be serviced by astronauts. Unfortunately, the Hubble needed to be repaired immediately after launch, when it turned out its mirror was slightly flawed. NASA astronauts installed additional mirrors to compensate for the flaws in 1993 and upgraded other scientific instruments on five different occasions, with the last upgrade being in 2009. Meanwhile, no plans are in the works to build an equivalent space telescope, so astronomers and nonscientists alike hope Hubble will continue to work indefinitely.
Click on for 50 images of the universe as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope.
On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched, carrying the Hubble Space Telescope (HST, or just "Hubble"). This orbiting telescope was the first of NASA's Great Observatories. For more than 30 years, HST has provided astronomers with incredible scientific data on everything from solar system objects to some of the most distant galaxies in the cosmos. Hubble was named for American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who in the early 20th century helped establish that the universe is much bigger than the Milky Way and showed the cosmos is expanding.
Stacker collected 50 Hubble images, taken between 1990 and 2020, that express both the beauty of the universe and important scientific knowledge. HST is a bus-sized satellite containing a 2.4-meter-diameter mirror for focusing light from distant objects, along with a suite of instruments for photography, measuring light intensity, and taking the spectrum of various astronomical sources. Hubble is primarily an optical telescope, viewing the cosmos in the same type of light we can see, and it also has the ability to see into the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum of light. The size of the telescope and its location above Earth's atmosphere (with its pesky weather and distortions from air currents) make HST one of the best optical telescopes still in operation.
HST is jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency and was designed to be serviced by astronauts. Unfortunately, the Hubble needed to be repaired immediately after launch, when it turned out its mirror was slightly flawed. NASA astronauts installed additional mirrors to compensate for the flaws in 1993 and upgraded other scientific instruments on five different occasions, with the last upgrade being in 2009. Meanwhile, no plans are in the works to build an equivalent space telescope, so astronomers and nonscientists alike hope Hubble will continue to work indefinitely.
Click on for 50 images of the universe as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, J. Hester, P. Scowen (Arizona State University)
Perhaps Hubble's most popular image involves part of the Eagle Nebula known as the "Pillars of Creation." The Eagle Nebula is a star-forming region of the Milky Way, which means a cold cloud of gas and dust dense enough for gravity to take hold and collapse material into new stars. Ultraviolet light from these newborn stars erodes the nebula away, leaving the beautifully sculpted pillars in the image.
NASA, J. Hester, P. Scowen (Arizona State University)
Perhaps Hubble's most popular image involves part of the Eagle Nebula known as the "Pillars of Creation." The Eagle Nebula is a star-forming region of the Milky Way, which means a cold cloud of gas and dust dense enough for gravity to take hold and collapse material into new stars. Ultraviolet light from these newborn stars erodes the nebula away, leaving the beautifully sculpted pillars in the image.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The dense gas and dust of the Eagle Nebula are opaque in visible light but transparent to infrared. Hubble's infrared vision of the Pillars of Creation reveals they are harboring additional baby stars swaddled in gas.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The dense gas and dust of the Eagle Nebula are opaque in visible light but transparent to infrared. Hubble's infrared vision of the Pillars of Creation reveals they are harboring additional baby stars swaddled in gas.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Jon Morse (University of Colorado)
In the early 1800s, the unremarkable star Eta Carinae in the southern constellation Carina grew suddenly brighter, briefly becoming the second-brightest star in the entire sky before fading. Later observations, including the one that produced this famous Hubble image, showed that Eta Carinae is actually two very massive stars shedding matter in two huge lobes of gas. Astronomers think these stars are unstable and will eventually explode in a supernova.
NASA, Jon Morse (University of Colorado)
In the early 1800s, the unremarkable star Eta Carinae in the southern constellation Carina grew suddenly brighter, briefly becoming the second-brightest star in the entire sky before fading. Later observations, including the one that produced this famous Hubble image, showed that Eta Carinae is actually two very massive stars shedding matter in two huge lobes of gas. Astronomers think these stars are unstable and will eventually explode in a supernova.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, University of Washington, PHAT team
Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31) is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way, near enough for astronomers to distinguish individual stars. This Hubble mosaic of a portion of Andromeda is the biggest image the telescope has made (constructed of 7,398 individual exposures!), containing over 100 million visible stars. Like the Milky Way, M31 is a spiral galaxy, with many of its brightest stars clustered in arms winding out from the galactic center.
NASA, ESA, University of Washington, PHAT team
Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31) is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way, near enough for astronomers to distinguish individual stars. This Hubble mosaic of a portion of Andromeda is the biggest image the telescope has made (constructed of 7,398 individual exposures!), containing over 100 million visible stars. Like the Milky Way, M31 is a spiral galaxy, with many of its brightest stars clustered in arms winding out from the galactic center.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A Simon (GSFC)
While much of Hubble's greatest work involves distant stars and galaxies, the observatory has also provided a wealth of information about our solar system. This 2017 image of Jupiter is part of an HST program to chart changes in the atmospheres of the giant outer planets. In particular, astronomers are watching the way Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot (known since the time of Galileo) is shrinking.
While much of Hubble's greatest work involves distant stars and galaxies, the observatory has also provided a wealth of information about our solar system. This 2017 image of Jupiter is part of an HST program to chart changes in the atmospheres of the giant outer planets. In particular, astronomers are watching the way Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot (known since the time of Galileo) is shrinking.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, J. Nichols (University of Leicester)
Auroras are caused when electrically charged particles cascade into a planet's atmosphere. On Earth, these are the northern and southern lights visible at high latitudes; Jupiter, being a much bigger planet with a huge magnetic field, has proportionally larger auroras. Hubble captured Jupiter's auroras using its ultraviolet instrument, and this picture was constructed by overlaying the UV image over a visible-light photo.
NASA, ESA, J. Nichols (University of Leicester)
Auroras are caused when electrically charged particles cascade into a planet's atmosphere. On Earth, these are the northern and southern lights visible at high latitudes; Jupiter, being a much bigger planet with a huge magnetic field, has proportionally larger auroras. Hubble captured Jupiter's auroras using its ultraviolet instrument, and this picture was constructed by overlaying the UV image over a visible-light photo.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, CXC/SAO/J. DePasquale
The Antennae Galaxies are a pair of galaxies in the process of colliding, a slow process taking hundreds of millions of years. This picture combines images from NASA's Great Observatories—Hubble (visible light), the Spitzer Infrared Observatory (infrared), and the Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-rays)—highlighting how these premiere space telescopes work together. The collision between the galaxies is producing new stars at a fast rate.
NASA, CXC/SAO/J. DePasquale
The Antennae Galaxies are a pair of galaxies in the process of colliding, a slow process taking hundreds of millions of years. This picture combines images from NASA's Great Observatories—Hubble (visible light), the Spitzer Infrared Observatory (infrared), and the Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-rays)—highlighting how these premiere space telescopes work together. The collision between the galaxies is producing new stars at a fast rate.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Robert Williams, Hubble Deep Field Team (STScI)
In 1996, astronomers pointed HST at a small unremarkable spot on the sky nearly empty of stars and took pictures for 10 days to get a clear view deep into the cosmos. The 342 photos assembled from the project make up the Hubble Deep Field Survey and contain roughly 3,000 individual galaxies, some billions of light-years away. In fact, nearly everything you see in this image is a galaxy, revealing the diversity and evolution of galaxies over the history of the universe.
NASA, ESA, Robert Williams, Hubble Deep Field Team (STScI)
In 1996, astronomers pointed HST at a small unremarkable spot on the sky nearly empty of stars and took pictures for 10 days to get a clear view deep into the cosmos. The 342 photos assembled from the project make up the Hubble Deep Field Survey and contain roughly 3,000 individual galaxies, some billions of light-years away. In fact, nearly everything you see in this image is a galaxy, revealing the diversity and evolution of galaxies over the history of the universe.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, K. France (University of Colordo, Boulder)
In early 1987, astronomers spotted a new bright point of light in the nearby galaxy in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Supernova 1987A, the explosion of a massive star. Because it is the closest supernova in modern times, astronomers have been able to track the aftereffects of the explosion. This 2010 Hubble image shows expanding bubbles of matter blasted away from the dying star, producing beads of light where the material slammed into clumps of gas in the surrounding region.
NASA, ESA, K. France (University of Colordo, Boulder)
In early 1987, astronomers spotted a new bright point of light in the nearby galaxy in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Supernova 1987A, the explosion of a massive star. Because it is the closest supernova in modern times, astronomers have been able to track the aftereffects of the explosion. This 2010 Hubble image shows expanding bubbles of matter blasted away from the dying star, producing beads of light where the material slammed into clumps of gas in the surrounding region.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI)
Despite the power of modern telescopes like HST, most stars other than the sun are too far away to be anything but points of light. However, Hubble captured the first details on another star in 1996: the red giant Betelgeuse, which is part of the constellation Orion. As the diagram shows, Betelgeuse is so huge it's no longer spherical; in 2020, material ejected from the star blocked enough of its light that it dimmed visibly.
NASA, ESA, Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI)
Despite the power of modern telescopes like HST, most stars other than the sun are too far away to be anything but points of light. However, Hubble captured the first details on another star in 1996: the red giant Betelgeuse, which is part of the constellation Orion. As the diagram shows, Betelgeuse is so huge it's no longer spherical; in 2020, material ejected from the star blocked enough of its light that it dimmed visibly.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Koekemoer (STScI)
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and can consist of thousands of individual galaxies. Abel 370 has so much mass (mostly in the form of mysterious invisible dark matter) that its gravity focuses light from more distant galaxies, producing magnified and distorted images of objects too far to be seen ordinarily. You can see some of those magnified galaxies in this HST image, appearing as smeared arcs of light.
NASA, ESA, A. Koekemoer (STScI)
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and can consist of thousands of individual galaxies. Abel 370 has so much mass (mostly in the form of mysterious invisible dark matter) that its gravity focuses light from more distant galaxies, producing magnified and distorted images of objects too far to be seen ordinarily. You can see some of those magnified galaxies in this HST image, appearing as smeared arcs of light.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, M. Showalter (SETI Institute)
Before the New Horizons probe arrived on Pluto in 2015, astronomers turned HST to the dwarf planet to look for any potential hazards. This 2012 image shows Pluto's five moons, including a fifth previously unknown moon, now known as Styx. Hubble was also used to discover the moons Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos, which are too small to be seen with less powerful telescopes.
NASA, ESA, M. Showalter (SETI Institute)
Before the New Horizons probe arrived on Pluto in 2015, astronomers turned HST to the dwarf planet to look for any potential hazards. This 2012 image shows Pluto's five moons, including a fifth previously unknown moon, now known as Styx. Hubble was also used to discover the moons Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos, which are too small to be seen with less powerful telescopes.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), WFPC2 science team
Smaller stars like our sun don't explode as supernovas but shed material as they die. Some of these form "planetary nebulas" like the Hourglass Nebula, which forms two interlinked bubbles of gas. The eerie effect here is because Hubble doesn't "see" color the way people do, so the image colors (and many other images in this slideshow) correspond to the presence of particular types of atoms or molecules: green for hydrogen, red for nitrogen, and blue for ionized oxygen.
NASA, Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), WFPC2 science team
Smaller stars like our sun don't explode as supernovas but shed material as they die. Some of these form "planetary nebulas" like the Hourglass Nebula, which forms two interlinked bubbles of gas. The eerie effect here is because Hubble doesn't "see" color the way people do, so the image colors (and many other images in this slideshow) correspond to the presence of particular types of atoms or molecules: green for hydrogen, red for nitrogen, and blue for ionized oxygen.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion is one of the most popular objects to look at through backyard telescopes, where it looks like a horse-shaped shadow against background stars. This HST infrared image shows newborn stars hiding inside the billowing nebula gas. Like the Eagle Nebula, the Horsehead is being eroded by ultraviolet light from nearby young, hot stars.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion is one of the most popular objects to look at through backyard telescopes, where it looks like a horse-shaped shadow against background stars. This HST infrared image shows newborn stars hiding inside the billowing nebula gas. Like the Eagle Nebula, the Horsehead is being eroded by ultraviolet light from nearby young, hot stars.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, D. Batcheldor and E. Perlman (Florida Institute of Technology), Hubble Heritage Team
M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy (meaning: it has mostly old stars and no spiral arms) in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Like nearly every galaxy we know of, M87 harbors a huge black hole near its center, which was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019. This set of HST pictures shows a jet of matter blasted out by that black hole, stretching out farther than the visible edges of M87.
NASA, ESA, D. Batcheldor and E. Perlman (Florida Institute of Technology), Hubble Heritage Team
M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy (meaning: it has mostly old stars and no spiral arms) in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Like nearly every galaxy we know of, M87 harbors a huge black hole near its center, which was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019. This set of HST pictures shows a jet of matter blasted out by that black hole, stretching out farther than the visible edges of M87.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, J. DePasquale (STScI), R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)
The Crab Nebula is the remains of a star that went supernova and which was observed across the world in 1054 C.E. This image combines optical light from Hubble (in yellow), infrared light from Spitzer (in red), and X-ray light from Chandra (in blue), revealing the complex internal structure of this centuries-old supernova remnant. Matter continues to collide inside the nebula even after all this time, explaining the tendrils and bubbles you see in the picture.
NASA, ESA, J. DePasquale (STScI), R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)
The Crab Nebula is the remains of a star that went supernova and which was observed across the world in 1054 C.E. This image combines optical light from Hubble (in yellow), infrared light from Spitzer (in red), and X-ray light from Chandra (in blue), revealing the complex internal structure of this centuries-old supernova remnant. Matter continues to collide inside the nebula even after all this time, explaining the tendrils and bubbles you see in the picture.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA: ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
RS Puppis is a star known as a Cepheid variable: aging stars that pulsate, with predictable fluctuations in their light. This southern hemisphere star pulsates roughly every six weeks, creating "light echoes" in the surrounding gas. Early 20th-century astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered that Cepheid variables have a connection between the frequency of fluctuations and their brightness, which allowed Edwin Hubble to make the first measurement of the distance to Andromeda Galaxy.
NASA: ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
RS Puppis is a star known as a Cepheid variable: aging stars that pulsate, with predictable fluctuations in their light. This southern hemisphere star pulsates roughly every six weeks, creating "light echoes" in the surrounding gas. Early 20th-century astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered that Cepheid variables have a connection between the frequency of fluctuations and their brightness, which allowed Edwin Hubble to make the first measurement of the distance to Andromeda Galaxy.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M.H. Wong, OPAL Team
As part of the giant planet monitoring program, HST captured this beautiful image of Saturn. Not only are the planet's famous rings shown clearly, but you can also see the hexagonal storm at Saturn's north pole, a feature not identified before the Cassini spacecraft mission.
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M.H. Wong, OPAL Team
As part of the giant planet monitoring program, HST captured this beautiful image of Saturn. Not only are the planet's famous rings shown clearly, but you can also see the hexagonal storm at Saturn's north pole, a feature not identified before the Cassini spacecraft mission.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)
Earth's seasons are caused by the fact that our axis is tilted, so the north pole points toward the sun in the summer and away in winter. Saturn has an even stronger axial tilt, but Hubble captured this ultraviolet image near the planet's equinox so that both poles were nearly in view at once. That allows us to see the auroras—northern and southern lights—in a single image, a rare occurrence.
NASA, ESA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)
Earth's seasons are caused by the fact that our axis is tilted, so the north pole points toward the sun in the summer and away in winter. Saturn has an even stronger axial tilt, but Hubble captured this ultraviolet image near the planet's equinox so that both poles were nearly in view at once. That allows us to see the auroras—northern and southern lights—in a single image, a rare occurrence.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Key Project Team, High-Z Supernova Search Team
The bright star-light object toward the lower-left corner of this image is Supernova 1994D, on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC 4526. It's a Type Ia supernova, which is the explosion of a white dwarf (the remnant of the core of a star like our sun). Astronomers use Type Ia supernovas to measure the expansion of the universe because they're bright enough to be seen from billions of light-years away.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Key Project Team, High-Z Supernova Search Team
The bright star-light object toward the lower-left corner of this image is Supernova 1994D, on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC 4526. It's a Type Ia supernova, which is the explosion of a white dwarf (the remnant of the core of a star like our sun). Astronomers use Type Ia supernovas to measure the expansion of the universe because they're bright enough to be seen from billions of light-years away.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), Hubble Heritage Team
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is a favorite galaxy for many people, and this Hubble image shows why. As a "grand design" spiral galaxy, the spiral arms are clearly defined, dotted with bright young blue stars and pink clouds where new stars are forming. Gravitational interactions with the smaller galaxy likely drive this star formation at the right side of the image.
NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), Hubble Heritage Team
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is a favorite galaxy for many people, and this Hubble image shows why. As a "grand design" spiral galaxy, the spiral arms are clearly defined, dotted with bright young blue stars and pink clouds where new stars are forming. Gravitational interactions with the smaller galaxy likely drive this star formation at the right side of the image.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula, the shedded material from a dying sun-like star. We see this system from an angle that shows the ring structure, but this 2013 HST image reveals the blue part of the nebula is an oblong bubble that passes through the ring. At the Ring Nebula's very center, you can make out a white dot that is a white dwarf, the remnant of the original star's core.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula, the shedded material from a dying sun-like star. We see this system from an angle that shows the ring structure, but this 2013 HST image reveals the blue part of the nebula is an oblong bubble that passes through the ring. At the Ring Nebula's very center, you can make out a white dot that is a white dwarf, the remnant of the original star's core.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, C. Kiss, J. Stansberry
The two largest known objects beyond Neptune in our solar system are Eris and Pluto; the third-largest is Gonggong, discovered in 2007 and finally named in 2019. These HST images show how astronomers discovered its moon Xiangliu by comparing archival pictures and looking for how things changed. Gonggong, like other distant solar system worlds, is too small to be anything but a pinpoint of light in most telescopes, requiring observatories of Hubble's caliber.
NASA, ESA, C. Kiss, J. Stansberry
The two largest known objects beyond Neptune in our solar system are Eris and Pluto; the third-largest is Gonggong, discovered in 2007 and finally named in 2019. These HST images show how astronomers discovered its moon Xiangliu by comparing archival pictures and looking for how things changed. Gonggong, like other distant solar system worlds, is too small to be anything but a pinpoint of light in most telescopes, requiring observatories of Hubble's caliber.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, N. Pirzkal, HUDF Team (STScI)
Following up on the earlier Hubble Deep Field Survey, astronomers upped the ante and conducted the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey, looking at one relatively empty patch of the sky for roughly 1 million seconds (nearly 12 full days). This longer exposure revealed 10,000 galaxies, including some of the most distant yet discovered.
NASA, ESA, N. Pirzkal, HUDF Team (STScI)
Following up on the earlier Hubble Deep Field Survey, astronomers upped the ante and conducted the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey, looking at one relatively empty patch of the sky for roughly 1 million seconds (nearly 12 full days). This longer exposure revealed 10,000 galaxies, including some of the most distant yet discovered.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA
The Bullet Cluster is actually two galaxy clusters caught in the act of collision, where the "bullet" is a shockwave in X-ray emitting hot gas (from Chandra, shown in red). The visible light Hubble data allowed astronomers to measure where the mass from each cluster was concentrated (shown in blue). They found most of that mass was separated from the hot gas, meaning it's made up of invisible matter; this is one of the best direct measurements of the mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the cosmos.
The Bullet Cluster is actually two galaxy clusters caught in the act of collision, where the "bullet" is a shockwave in X-ray emitting hot gas (from Chandra, shown in red). The visible light Hubble data allowed astronomers to measure where the mass from each cluster was concentrated (shown in blue). They found most of that mass was separated from the hot gas, meaning it's made up of invisible matter; this is one of the best direct measurements of the mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the cosmos.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M. Wong, A. Hsu
The Voyager 2 spacecraft provided us with our first images of Neptune with its 1989 flyby, showing, in particular, a large dark-colored storm on the planet's blue disk. Later Hubble pictures didn't show this Great Dark Spot, meaning the storm had dissipated. However, a new Great Dark Spot formed in a different place on Neptune, as seen in this image; this behavior shows how huge storms form and break up on giant worlds.
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M. Wong, A. Hsu
The Voyager 2 spacecraft provided us with our first images of Neptune with its 1989 flyby, showing, in particular, a large dark-colored storm on the planet's blue disk. Later Hubble pictures didn't show this Great Dark Spot, meaning the storm had dissipated. However, a new Great Dark Spot formed in a different place on Neptune, as seen in this image; this behavior shows how huge storms form and break up on giant worlds.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, S.H. Suyu, K.C. Wong
Quasars are supermassive black holes that heat up matter until it glows brightly. In these HST pictures, gravity from a foreground galaxy focuses and splits light from more distant quasars, making one quasar look like four. This effect is known as strong gravitational lensing, and astronomers use it to measure how far those quasars are from Earth by timing when each image flickers.
NASA, ESA, S.H. Suyu, K.C. Wong
Quasars are supermassive black holes that heat up matter until it glows brightly. In these HST pictures, gravity from a foreground galaxy focuses and splits light from more distant quasars, making one quasar look like four. This effect is known as strong gravitational lensing, and astronomers use it to measure how far those quasars are from Earth by timing when each image flickers.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) is a "flocculent" spiral galaxy, meaning its spiral arms look fleecy thanks to the copious amounts of gas and dust they contain. This high-resolution image of M83 reveals the processes of star formation and cavities where stars exploded in supernovas.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) is a "flocculent" spiral galaxy, meaning its spiral arms look fleecy thanks to the copious amounts of gas and dust they contain. This high-resolution image of M83 reveals the processes of star formation and cavities where stars exploded in supernovas.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Great Nebula of Orion is a star-forming nebula that can be seen on a dark night without a telescope in Orion's "sword." A young hot star in that nebula, LL Ori, is pumping out streams of charged particles known as stellar wind at speeds high enough to produce a shockwave in the surrounding gas. Though we can't see the whole thing, this shockwave surrounds the star, though not in a spherical shape.
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Great Nebula of Orion is a star-forming nebula that can be seen on a dark night without a telescope in Orion's "sword." A young hot star in that nebula, LL Ori, is pumping out streams of charged particles known as stellar wind at speeds high enough to produce a shockwave in the surrounding gas. Though we can't see the whole thing, this shockwave surrounds the star, though not in a spherical shape.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
The two galaxies making up the object Arp 142 collided, their mutual gravity pulling one of the galaxies into a shape resembling a galactic penguin. This penguin was once a spiral galaxy like ours, but the encounter has disrupted its shape and driven the production of new stars. The second object is an elliptical galaxy, which consists of older stars and little gas, which may be why its shape hasn't been roughed up as much by the collision.
The two galaxies making up the object Arp 142 collided, their mutual gravity pulling one of the galaxies into a shape resembling a galactic penguin. This penguin was once a spiral galaxy like ours, but the encounter has disrupted its shape and driven the production of new stars. The second object is an elliptical galaxy, which consists of older stars and little gas, which may be why its shape hasn't been roughed up as much by the collision.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley)
These two images show disks of dust and ice around newborn stars, which are thought to resemble the Kuiper Belt in the outer part of our own solar system. These protoplanetary disks, as they are called, form from the leftovers of the host star's birth. In these cases, there might be planets orbiting closer in, but even Hubble's capabilities aren't good enough to see something so relatively tiny.
NASA, ESA, P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley)
These two images show disks of dust and ice around newborn stars, which are thought to resemble the Kuiper Belt in the outer part of our own solar system. These protoplanetary disks, as they are called, form from the leftovers of the host star's birth. In these cases, there might be planets orbiting closer in, but even Hubble's capabilities aren't good enough to see something so relatively tiny.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of tens of thousands of stars, including some of the oldest stars we know of. The cluster 47 Tucanae (located in the southern constellation Tucan) is part of the Milky Way but is older than our galaxy by several billion years.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of tens of thousands of stars, including some of the oldest stars we know of. The cluster 47 Tucanae (located in the southern constellation Tucan) is part of the Milky Way but is older than our galaxy by several billion years.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and home to Supernova 1987A. It's also home to the huge star-forming region known as the Tarantula Nebula. Hubble's infrared camera revealed a staggering 800,000 stars and protostars inside the Tarantula, of which you can see more than a few in this image.
NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and home to Supernova 1987A. It's also home to the huge star-forming region known as the Tarantula Nebula. Hubble's infrared camera revealed a staggering 800,000 stars and protostars inside the Tarantula, of which you can see more than a few in this image.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)
The comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS (or more simply K2) was first seen by Hubble in 2017 when it was past the orbit of Saturn. Comets are made of rock and ices (including water ice, carbon dioxide ice, and others) that form the distinctive tails when heated by the Sun. Even at that distance, sunlight was enough to melt the outer layers of K2, making it the most distant active comet ever seen.
NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)
The comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS (or more simply K2) was first seen by Hubble in 2017 when it was past the orbit of Saturn. Comets are made of rock and ices (including water ice, carbon dioxide ice, and others) that form the distinctive tails when heated by the Sun. Even at that distance, sunlight was enough to melt the outer layers of K2, making it the most distant active comet ever seen.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams (University of Washington)
The Milky Way is one of three large galaxies in the small cluster known as the Local Group. The other two are Andromeda (the biggest of the group) and Triangulum (M33), a small spiral. Despite the fact that it's probably as old as its larger neighbors, Triangulum is producing new stars at a fairly high rate, which intrigues astronomers.
NASA, ESA, M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams (University of Washington)
The Milky Way is one of three large galaxies in the small cluster known as the Local Group. The other two are Andromeda (the biggest of the group) and Triangulum (M33), a small spiral. Despite the fact that it's probably as old as its larger neighbors, Triangulum is producing new stars at a fairly high rate, which intrigues astronomers.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
Galaxy collisions may seem violent, but they're one major way small galaxies grow into bigger ones, as they merge together. And undoubtedly galactic collisions are beautiful, as in with the galaxies of Arp 273, which HST captured to commemorate its 21st anniversary. As with other examples of interacting galaxies we've seen, Arp 273 shows star formation spurred on by each galaxy's gravitational tug on the other.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
Galaxy collisions may seem violent, but they're one major way small galaxies grow into bigger ones, as they merge together. And undoubtedly galactic collisions are beautiful, as in with the galaxies of Arp 273, which HST captured to commemorate its 21st anniversary. As with other examples of interacting galaxies we've seen, Arp 273 shows star formation spurred on by each galaxy's gravitational tug on the other.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M. Wong, A. Hsu
When Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986, the pictures it returned to Earth showed a green-blue planet nearly unblemished by clouds. By contrast, this recent Hubble image shows a stormy cap of clouds over Uranus' pole. Since Uranus has the most extreme axial tilt of all planets—essentially tipped on its side—it also experiences the most extreme seasons, which may drive weather in ways we don't fully understand yet.
NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M. Wong, A. Hsu
When Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986, the pictures it returned to Earth showed a green-blue planet nearly unblemished by clouds. By contrast, this recent Hubble image shows a stormy cap of clouds over Uranus' pole. Since Uranus has the most extreme axial tilt of all planets—essentially tipped on its side—it also experiences the most extreme seasons, which may drive weather in ways we don't fully understand yet.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA
Supernovas, by definition, only happen once, since when a star blows up, there's nothing left to explode again. However, using strong gravitational lensing, astronomers were able to witness Supernova Refsdal four times when light from the explosion passed near a foreground galaxy. This effectively quadrupled the data from the supernova, providing both extra information about the explosion and a way to test the modern theory of gravity in new ways.
NASA, ESA
Supernovas, by definition, only happen once, since when a star blows up, there's nothing left to explode again. However, using strong gravitational lensing, astronomers were able to witness Supernova Refsdal four times when light from the explosion passed near a foreground galaxy. This effectively quadrupled the data from the supernova, providing both extra information about the explosion and a way to test the modern theory of gravity in new ways.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
All stars—our sun included—produce "wind" in the form of electrically charged particles blowing off the surface. The star at the center of the Bubble Nebula is 45 times more massive than the sun, and its wind has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas seven light-years across. The nebula itself is the beautifully illuminated shape made where the wind collides with that gas.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
All stars—our sun included—produce "wind" in the form of electrically charged particles blowing off the surface. The star at the center of the Bubble Nebula is 45 times more massive than the sun, and its wind has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas seven light-years across. The nebula itself is the beautifully illuminated shape made where the wind collides with that gas.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Riess
Spiral galaxy NGC 1015 has a striking appearance, in large part, because we see it almost perfectly "face on." The central part of the galaxy is marked by a bar of stars and gas, surrounded by a ring of matter. But this Hubble image also fortuitously includes Supernova 2009ig, a Type Ia supernova caused by the explosion of a white dwarf.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1015 has a striking appearance, in large part, because we see it almost perfectly "face on." The central part of the galaxy is marked by a bar of stars and gas, surrounded by a ring of matter. But this Hubble image also fortuitously includes Supernova 2009ig, a Type Ia supernova caused by the explosion of a white dwarf.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hans Van Winckel, Martin Cohen
Most shapes in space are round or blobby, but the planetary nebula HD 44179 is boxy, giving it the popular name the Red Rectangle. This 2004 Hubble image shows that the fundamental shape of the matter being shed by a dying star is more like an X, which explains why the material looks rectangular from a distance.
NASA, ESA, Hans Van Winckel, Martin Cohen
Most shapes in space are round or blobby, but the planetary nebula HD 44179 is boxy, giving it the popular name the Red Rectangle. This 2004 Hubble image shows that the fundamental shape of the matter being shed by a dying star is more like an X, which explains why the material looks rectangular from a distance.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, A. Parker
Makemake is one of the dwarf planets in the outer solar system discovered within the past 20 years. Until 2015, astronomers couldn't tell if it had a satellite or not, but this Hubble image revealed a faint moon that might have been hiding in Makemake's glow previously. Named "S/2015 (136472) 1" and nicknamed "MK 2," the moon's presence helps astronomers measure important properties about Makemake, such as its mass.
NASA, ESA, A. Parker
Makemake is one of the dwarf planets in the outer solar system discovered within the past 20 years. Until 2015, astronomers couldn't tell if it had a satellite or not, but this Hubble image revealed a faint moon that might have been hiding in Makemake's glow previously. Named "S/2015 (136472) 1" and nicknamed "MK 2," the moon's presence helps astronomers measure important properties about Makemake, such as its mass.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, O. Gnedin, W. Brown
This picture of a star looks downright mundane until you realize it's speeding out of our galaxy at a breakneck 1.6 million miles per hour. HE 0437-5439 is known as a "hypervelocity" star, and it was likely part of a multiple-star system that drifted too close to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. The dance of gravity stripped HE 0437-5439 from its companions and kicked it out of the galaxy entirely.
NASA, ESA, O. Gnedin, W. Brown
This picture of a star looks downright mundane until you realize it's speeding out of our galaxy at a breakneck 1.6 million miles per hour. HE 0437-5439 is known as a "hypervelocity" star, and it was likely part of a multiple-star system that drifted too close to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. The dance of gravity stripped HE 0437-5439 from its companions and kicked it out of the galaxy entirely.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Sombrero Galaxy (M104) is another of Hubble's greatest hits, thanks to its very bright disk surrounded by a ring of dust. Because we see the galaxy nearly edge-on, it's hard to distinguish a lot of its features. However, astronomers have used this Hubble image to identify 2,000 globular clusters of stars in and around the galaxy.
NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
The Sombrero Galaxy (M104) is another of Hubble's greatest hits, thanks to its very bright disk surrounded by a ring of dust. Because we see the galaxy nearly edge-on, it's hard to distinguish a lot of its features. However, astronomers have used this Hubble image to identify 2,000 globular clusters of stars in and around the galaxy.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, STScI
Mars can feel downright mundane compared to many of the other cosmic objects in Hubble's catalog, but astronomers have turned the telescope to look at our planetary neighbor many times in the past 30 years. This 2018 image shows the Red Planet with a winter cap of clouds over the north pole. You can also see Mars' two small potato-like moons, Phobos and Deimos, in the right and lower side of the photo, respectively.
Mars can feel downright mundane compared to many of the other cosmic objects in Hubble's catalog, but astronomers have turned the telescope to look at our planetary neighbor many times in the past 30 years. This 2018 image shows the Red Planet with a winter cap of clouds over the north pole. You can also see Mars' two small potato-like moons, Phobos and Deimos, in the right and lower side of the photo, respectively.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
At first look, Stephan's Quintet seems to be five galaxies in collision. However, it turns out only three are actually interacting, and the bright galaxy in the upper left corner is seven times closer to Earth than the others. This optical illusion highlights the fact that occasionally things can look close together when they're actually very far apart, despite space being very big and mostly empty.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
At first look, Stephan's Quintet seems to be five galaxies in collision. However, it turns out only three are actually interacting, and the bright galaxy in the upper left corner is seven times closer to Earth than the others. This optical illusion highlights the fact that occasionally things can look close together when they're actually very far apart, despite space being very big and mostly empty.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, HEIC, Hubble Heritage Team
The Cat's-Eye Nebula may be another planetary nebula, but each star like our sun seems to die in its own beautiful and spectacular fashion. This nebula, in particular, is strikingly complex, with concentric layers of shed material overlapping bubbles and an almost spiral-arm structure.
NASA, ESA, HEIC, Hubble Heritage Team
The Cat's-Eye Nebula may be another planetary nebula, but each star like our sun seems to die in its own beautiful and spectacular fashion. This nebula, in particular, is strikingly complex, with concentric layers of shed material overlapping bubbles and an almost spiral-arm structure.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (Yale University)
Galaxy GN-z11 just looks like a red blob in this HST image, but that's because it's a breathtaking 13.4 billion light-years away. Since the universe is only about 13.8 billion years old, this means GN-z11 formed about as early as any galaxy can exist. In fact, it was very bright blue 13.4 billion years ago, but as the light from it traveled, it got stretched into the red part of the spectrum, a phenomenon known as cosmic redshifting.
NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (Yale University)
Galaxy GN-z11 just looks like a red blob in this HST image, but that's because it's a breathtaking 13.4 billion light-years away. Since the universe is only about 13.8 billion years old, this means GN-z11 formed about as early as any galaxy can exist. In fact, it was very bright blue 13.4 billion years ago, but as the light from it traveled, it got stretched into the red part of the spectrum, a phenomenon known as cosmic redshifting.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
The star V838 Monocerotis (in the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn) brightened suddenly in 2002, then faded. Astronomers turned to HST to look at it and found an expanding shell of gas around the star. This image shows a Firefox-like swirl of material shed by the star, which was probably left over from an earlier outburst.
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team
The star V838 Monocerotis (in the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn) brightened suddenly in 2002, then faded. Astronomers turned to HST to look at it and found an expanding shell of gas around the star. This image shows a Firefox-like swirl of material shed by the star, which was probably left over from an earlier outburst.
Busy season for sunspots is beginning, meaning more auroras
NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Field Team
In 2019, Hubble astronomers collected 7,500 images taken over 16 years of observations to make the Hubble Legacy Survey. This mosaic includes infrared, optical, and ultraviolet data to provide a view of the cosmos, both deep and wide. With 265,000 galaxies in the field, you could spend your life looking at it and still find new things to discover, a worthy summation of Hubble's 30-year career so far.
In 2019, Hubble astronomers collected 7,500 images taken over 16 years of observations to make the Hubble Legacy Survey. This mosaic includes infrared, optical, and ultraviolet data to provide a view of the cosmos, both deep and wide. With 265,000 galaxies in the field, you could spend your life looking at it and still find new things to discover, a worthy summation of Hubble's 30-year career so far.
Is “Twosday” as special as some corners of the internet seem to think? articular/iStock via Getty Images Plus
A woman calculates a destiny number based on numerology. Helin Loik-Tomson/iStock via Getty Images Plus
NASA, Hubble Heritage Team