Overview
- For its 36th birthday, the Hubble Space Telescope re-imaged the Trifid Nebula, letting scientists compare the scene to a famous 1997 view.
- The new picture, produced by teams from NASA, ESA, and STScI with astronomers at the Space Science Institute, shows dust carved by ultraviolet light and jets from young stars.
- Hubble remains in service with only two of its original six gyroscopes still functional, and NASA now points the telescope using one gyro to stretch its remaining life.
- A NASA–SpaceX study of a private mission to raise Hubble’s orbit ended in June 2024 with a rejection, and forecasts still place atmospheric re-entry around mid-2033.
- Since 1990 Hubble has logged over 1.7 million observations and supported more than 23,000 papers, with the James Webb Space Telescope since 2021 pushing deeper as a complement.