NASA has just provided new images from the iconic Hubble telescope, and simply put, they're absolutely stunning. Hubble has captured countless images of outer space in the 31 years it's been in operation. Launched in 1990 and costing around $2.5 billion, the discoveries made by Hubble are endless. It's helped scientists accurately determine the universe's age, find the Nix and Hydra moons near Pluto, and has provided heaps of stunning images all along the way.

Unfortunately, it looked like Hubble's time was coming to an end not that long ago. On June 13, 2021, NASA reported that Hubble had gone offline due to a glitch with its payload computer. The team spent the following month trying to find a fix, and on July 16, it was reported that Hubble had come back online. NASA achieved this by re-routing all of Hubble's operations to a backup computer. It was a risky move, to say the least, but Hubble is now back up and running just as it has been since 1990.

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That's what makes these latest images from Hubble so noteworthy. On July 19, 2021, NASA shared the first two photos Hubble has captured since its successful reboot. Per a statement from the organization, "These early snapshots demonstrate Hubble's return to full science operations, following correction of a computer anomaly aboard the spacecraft. Normal science observations were restarted on July 17, at 1:18 pm EDT. Among the early targets are globular star clusters in other galaxies and aurorae on the giant planet Jupiter, in addition to a look at bizarre galaxies."

A Closer Look At These Latest Hubble Images

Images of two mysterious galaxies captured by Hubble in July 2021
Source: NASA

The above photos are gorgeous enough without any explanation, but diving a bit deeper into them reveals just how fascinating they really are. Taking a look at the image on the left, NASA indicates this being a picture of galaxy ARP-MADORE2115-273. This is the first high-resolution picture Hubble has captured of the galaxy, which is a short 297 million light-years away from Earth. It was previously believed to be a 'collisional ring' as a result of there being two galaxies merged together. Upon closer inspection with his new image, however, "The new Hubble observations show that the ongoing interaction between the galaxies is far more complex, leaving behind a rich network of stars and dusty gas."

As for the image on the right, this showcases the galaxy ARP-MADORE0002-503. It's even further away at 490 million light-years and is a "large spiral galaxy with unusual, extended spiral arms." These arms have a radius of 163,000 light-years, which is three times larger than the spirals found in the Milky Way. Not only is the radius noteworthy, but NASA points out that most disk galaxies have an even number of those arms. ARP-MADORE0002-503, by comparison, has three.

It remains to be seen how well the backup computer aboard Hubble is able to perform over the coming months and years. At least for right now, all appears to be well. Hubble is working as it should, NASA is confident in its current state, and these latest images remind us why it's so important Hubble continues to remain operational.

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Source: NASA