Hubble’s Highlights from its 36th Year in Orbit

0:00 NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 36th

0:04 anniversary in orbit on April 24th, 2026.

0:08 To mark the occasion,

0:10 the agency premiered a stunning new image of the Trifid Nebula.

0:16 Here are a few of the achievements from Hubble’s 36th year in orbit.

0:24 Within our solar system Hubble captured a clear image of 3I/ATLAS,

0:37 our latest comet from interstellar space.

0:41 The comet plunged toward the Sun at 130,000 miles per hour,

0:45 the highest velocity ever recorded for a solar system visitor.

0:49 Hubble revealed a dusty plume and teardrop-shaped tail,

0:53 similar to comets originating within our own solar system.

0:58 This cosmic object likely wandered among the stars

1:02 for billions of years before Hubble spotted it.

1:06 The comet will continue its journey outward,

1:10 never to return to our Solar System.

1:15 Hubble teamed up with the James Webb Space

1:19 Telescope to capture Saturn in strikingly different ways.

1:24 Scientists peered through Saturn's atmosphere at multiple altitudes,

1:28 like peeling back layers of an onion.

1:32 Each telescope reveals different aspects,

1:35 helping researchers understand Saturn’s atmosphere as one connected system.

1:39 Together, Webb's infrared and Hubble's visible-light views

1:43 provide a deeper understanding of Saturn's complex atmosphere.

1:48 Beyond our solar system Hubble uncovered a rare ultra-massive white

1:57 dwarf that appears to be the remnant of two merged stars.

2:03 A white dwarf is the hot, dense,

2:05 Earth-sized remnant core left behind after a low-to-medium mass star

2:08 has exhausted its nuclear fuel and expelled its outer layers.

2:12 The star looks ordinary in visible light,

2:14 but Hubble's ultraviolet instruments revealed carbon it its atmosphere;

2:17 carbon is normally concealed deep within the star.

2:20 This unusual chemical signature suggests a violent origin,

2:24 a collision that burned away its outer layers.

2:28 This discovery suggests merger remnants may be

2:32 hiding among seemingly-typical white dwarfs across our galaxy.

2:36 Only Hubble's unique ultraviolet sensitivity

2:40 could expose this cosmic collision's fingerprints, invisible from Earth.

2:46 Hubble captured the aftermath of a violent

2:49 collision in the Fomalhaut star and disk system, just 25 light-years from Earth.

2:54 A new bright spot in Hubble's images revealed debris from a massive

2:58 collision of rocky objects in a region of Fomalhaut's orbiting disk of debris.

3:03 This crash mirrors our solar system's chaotic early days,

3:07 when objects constantly bombarded Earth and other planets.

3:10 Following Hubble's similar 2008 detection of "Fomalhaut b,"

3:14 this discovery reveals another collision rather than an exoplanet.

3:19 Scientists estimate the colliding 18-mile objects are among

3:23 roughly 300 million similar bodies orbiting the star.

3:27 This rare glimpse into planetary formation offers

3:31 astronomers an opportunity Webb will soon help investigate.

3:35 Beyond our galaxy Hubble helped uncover a ghostly galaxy

3:47 so faint it nearly vanishes into the darkness of space.

3:52 In the Perseus galaxy cluster, astronomers detected CDG-2,

3:55 a galaxy so dim it's like spotting a black cat in a coal bin.

4:01 The galaxy revealed itself not through direct light,

4:05 but by the ancient globular star clusters orbiting within its gravity.

4:09 Hubble confirmed this cosmic phantom's existence,

4:12 revealing a faint halo of light around four dense star clusters.

4:18 Remarkably, 99% of CDG-2's mass is invisible dark matter,

4:21 with much of its normal matter stripped away by cosmic forces.

4:25 Dark matter is the invisible glue holding our universe together,

4:30 making up most of the matter around us.

4:34 This discovery reveals the universe's hidden architecture,

4:37 galaxies made not of what we see,

4:39 but of the invisible dark matter that holds them together.

4:43 Hubble revealed an elusive intermediate-mass black hole's hunting ground,

4:47 filling a crucial gap in our cosmic understanding.

4:51 While nearly every galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center…

4:58 …Hubble discovered something rare hiding in the outskirts of galaxy NGC 6099.

5:05 The Chandra observatory detected X-rays,

5:07 where a source known as HLX 1 lit up the sky… …and Hubble observed

5:13 the same spot and uncovered a dense

5:17 cluster of stars packed just light-months apart.

5:20 Hubble's observations exposed this stellar feeding zone,

5:23 where stars orbit just 500 billion miles apart.

5:28 This dense cluster provides the perfect hunting ground

5:32 for the black hole to capture unlucky stellar victims.

5:37 Hubble continues revealing cosmic environments where

5:41 the universe's most mysterious objects lurk.

5:45 Hubble also released an abundance of beautiful images… After 36 years,

5:56 Hubble keeps expanding our knowledge of the cosmos,

6:00 inspiring awe with its discoveries.

6:02 Follow us on social media @NASAHubble NASA MEATBALL!!!!