hubble

Hubble has caught a new kind of object: a “failed galaxy” candidate, Cloud-9, with almost no stars.

According to the NASA/ESA press release dated 2026-01-05, Cloud-9 is the first confirmed Reionization-Limited H I Cloud (RELHIC)—a neutral hydrogen cloud constrained by reionization. It lies in the outer region of the spiral galaxy M94, about 14 million light-years away. Radio observations (discovered by FAST, then rechecked with Green Bank and the VLA) show a compact, slightly comet-shaped knot of neutral hydrogen. The hydrogen mass is about 1 million times the Sun’s mass, and the core diameter is about 4,900 light-years. Hubble’s ACS image data digs deep into the radio peak region: within the area, no stars from this galaxy are visible—only background galaxies. That’s what seals the argument against the idea that it’s “actually a dark dwarf galaxy, but ground-based telescopes aren’t deep enough.”

If the gas pressure is roughly balanced by the gravitational pull from the dark matter halo, the team estimates the dark matter mass to be about 5 billion solar masses. Compared with typical hydrogen clouds near the Milky Way, it is smaller and rounder. The name simply means it is cloud number 9 around M94—there’s no lottery implication.

Independent verification: The ESA and NASA releases on the same day match in scope and wording; the results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Image: NASA, ESA, VLA, Gagandeep Anand (STScI), Alejandro Benitez-Llambay; processed by Joseph DePasquale (STScI); ESA/Hubble heic2601
Data current through: NASA/ESA press release 2026-01-05
#Hubble #NASA

Hubble caught an ionizing light it “shouldn’t” have seen during the late stage of reionization: the galaxy MXDFz4.4.

According to ESA/Hubble and NASA on 2026-06-23: this galaxy is about 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. Its volume is only about one hundredth that of the Milky Way, yet its star-formation rate is about 10 times higher. Young massive stars are packed together; it’s estimated that 50%–100% of the high-energy ionizing photons escape the surrounding gas, locally “clearing a path” through the neutral hydrogen “fog” that would otherwise be opaque. Prior direct detections of similar signals were mostly at around 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang or later; the paper was published in The Astrophysical Journal on the same day. JWST near-infrared and ESO VLT/MUSE deep-field data were used together to determine the redshift and stellar composition.

Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (Goovaerts, Rafelski, Koekemoer; processing by Pagan)
Data as of: press release 2026-06-23
#Hubble #astronomy

Hubble and Webb’s first joint effort to watch tiny ice chunks beyond Neptune: the smallest batch is surprisingly close in color to the “big brother”—as if they still “remember” what they looked like right after they were born.

According to a NASA press release dated 2026-09-08: the research team used Hubble to observe visible light and Webb to observe infrared, analyzing 27 newly discovered faint trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) beyond Neptune. Two companion papers were published the same day in The Astronomical Journal. Most of these icy bodies are at least about 100 million times dimmer than objects visible to the naked eye; the smallest one Webb detected has a diameter of roughly 5 km (about 3 miles), only about one-fifth of the detection limit of the most sensitive ground-based telescopes.

Focus on aperture/diameter implications: previously, scientists thought that small TNOs would have their surfaces heavily weathered and ground down by collisions, so their surface colors should differ from those of larger bodies. Instead, the colors of small objects from the “cold” population (nearly circular, close to the ecliptic) and the “hot” population (higher eccentricity, kicked outward early by perturbations from the giant planets) still remain closely related to those of their larger counterparts. Webb also found that the number of small bodies is lower than expected by some planet-formation models.

Independent verification: on the same day, the University of Arizona North campus newspaper and Newswise (STScI press release) confirmed the same key points as NASA—“first combined use of Hubble + Webb,” 27 newly discovered faint TNOs, small-body colors similar to larger ones, and fewer objects than expected.

Figure: Conceptual illustration (Artwork: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak / STScI), not a real telescope direct shot.

Data through: NASA / STScI release date 2026-09-08
#Hubble #Webb

The lens galaxy NGC 7722 captured by Hubble: toward the constellation Pegasus, about 187 million light-years away, the outer disk is wrapped in looping bands of dark red dust.

According to an ESA/Hubble and NASA press release dated 2026-01-30: NGC 7722 is a lenticular galaxy—an intermediate morphology between spiral and elliptical. It lacks clearly defined spiral arms, but has a bright central bulge and an extended halo, along with a visible disk with concentric rings. Most striking are the elongated bands of dark red dust winding around the outer disk and the halo. This is currently the clearest Hubble view of this galaxy, with the dust structures rendered very clearly. The release suggests these dust lanes most likely originated from a merger with another galaxy in the past. How lenticular galaxies form is still not fully understood, but mergers and gravitational perturbations are often thought to both reshape the outer structure, deplete gas, and—at the same time—bring in new dust.

Focus on instrumentation: In 2020, a Type Ia supernova, SN 2020SSF, erupted here—an explosion triggered when a white dwarf accretes material from a companion star until reaching a critical threshold. Its brightness is relatively consistent, making it an important standard candle for measuring distances across the galaxy. This image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of observing program #16691 (PI: R. J. Foley). It was intentionally taken about two years after the supernova had faded, in order to search for radioactive remnants, clues about the companion’s age, and a possible surviving companion. The supernova itself is not present in the image.

Independent verification: A Universe Magazine report dated 2026-02-03, using the same subject, confirms the same key points—about 187 million light-years away, the lenticular morphology, the dark red dust lanes and merger remnants, and the follow-up roughly two years after SN 2020SSF faded—matching the ESA/NASA coverage.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA; thanks to Mehmet Yüksek
Data as of: ESA/Hubble / NASA press release 2026-01-30
#Hubble #Astronomy

Hubble and Euclid team up to photograph the “Cat’s Eye” Nebula: gas expelled by the same dying star—nearby shows the intricate nuclear region, while farther out are the dissipating outer rings.

According to an ESA/Hubble and NASA joint press release dated 2026-03-03, the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) lies in Draco, about 4,400 light-years away according to Gaia measurements. A planetary nebula is actually expanding gas shed by a star in the late stages of its life; it was in 1864—on this very nebula—that spectroscopic observations first confirmed it was gas rather than a star. This image layers the two telescopes together: Euclid uses a wider visible-light + near-infrared field to place the bright central region inside an outer ring of colorful gas fragments shed earlier, while the background also reveals many distant galaxies; Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) high-resolution channel focuses on the nucleus, filling in concentric shell layers, fast gas jets, and dense knots carved out by shocks—like a “fossil record” of the star’s mass loss in its final phase. Some ACS data were used for the 2004 Cat’s Eye image; this time, newly added, previously unused data and new processing have produced one of the sharpest nuclear-region versions to date.

Independent verification: Phys.org (ESA-supplied), and Daily Galaxy’s retelling, confirm the ~4,400 light-year distance, the Hubble nucleus + Euclid wide-field view, and the same components such as concentric shells and jets—consistent with ESA/NASA.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
Data as of: ESA/Hubble / NASA release 2026-03-03
#Hubble #Astronomy

The barred spiral galaxy IC 486 captured by Hubble: on the outskirts of Gemini, about 380 million light-years away. The bright white glow at the center is not an ordinary star field, but an active galactic nucleus.

According to an ESA/Hubble and ESA media release (2026-03-27): IC 486 lies on the edge of Gemini, about 380 million light-years away, and is a barred spiral galaxy—there is a bright bar at the center, with spiral arms extending from the bar ends, winding into a structure close to ring-like. On the disk, faint blue regions mark pockets where stars are forming more recently, while the dust filaments trace areas where molecular gas is denser. The clearly brighter white glow in the middle comes from an active galactic nucleus (AGN): the central supermassive black hole has a mass exceeding roughly 100 million times the mass of the Sun, and radiation from the accretion disk can outshine all the stars across the entire disk.

The imaging data come from observing programs #17310 (PI: M. J. Koss) and #15444 (PI: A. J. Barth), used to systematically compare the nuclear regions and disk structures of nearby active galaxies; the team also included expert classifications, Galaxy Zoo citizen-science input, and experiments in morphological classification using large language models in the same batch of samples.

Independent verification: Daily Galaxy (2026-03-28) restated and confirmed the same figures—about 380 million light-years away, a barred spiral morphology, and a central supermassive black hole exceeding roughly 100 million solar masses—consistent with ESA/Hubble.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth
Data as of: ESA/Hubble release 2026-03-27
#Hubble #astronomy

The spiral galaxy NGC 3137 photographed by Hubble: about 53 million light-years away, a “neighbor” version of our local galaxy group.

According to an ESA/Hubble and NASA same-day press release (2026-04-30 / NASA Doc. 05-04): NGC 3137 is located in Antlia, at a distance of roughly 53 million light-years. It and NGC 3175 belong to the same galaxy group. In terms of structure, it is often compared to our local group, which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda—on both sides there are two large spiral disks, plus a batch of dwarf galaxies; this group has already identified more than 500 dwarf-galaxy candidate members. The image is a composite made from six bands, and with a tilted viewing angle you can clearly see the loose, feathery spiral arms. The central black hole is estimated to have a mass of about 60 million solar masses. The disk is crowded with bright blue star clusters and pink star-forming gas—this is the focus of observing program #17502 (PHANGS-HST, PI: D. Thilker), which catalogs the ages of clusters and nebulae in about 55 nearby galaxies.

Independent verification: A Daily Space Stories recap on 2026-04-30 confirms the same key figures—about 53 million light-years away, a central black hole of about 60 million solar masses, program 17502 / PHANGS-HST, and the presence of blue star clusters and red gas—matching ESA/NASA.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker and the PHANGS-HST Team
Data as of: ESA/Hubble release 2026-04-30; NASA image text 2026-05-04
#Hubble #astronomy

The spiral galaxy M88 (part of the Virgo Cluster) captured by Hubble: it is heading toward the cluster’s center, and its gas is already being “plowed away.”

According to an ESA/Hubble and NASA press release issued on the same day (2026-05-29): Messier 88 (M88, also known as NGC 4501) lies about 63 million light-years away in Coma Berenices. It is an active galaxy—its center contains a supermassive black hole with a mass of roughly 100 million times that of the Sun, which accretes gas and dust and drives outflows. The outer region features tightly wound, fairly symmetrical spiral arms; the viewing angle we see makes it appear elongated.

It is a member galaxy of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The press release states that M88 is moving toward the cluster’s center, about 2 million light-years away. In about 200–300 million years, it will come closest to the elliptical galaxy M87, which is anchoring the whole cluster. When it gets closer, it will experience stronger stripping due to ram pressure: as it travels through the cluster’s gas, the gas within its disk is swept away. Researchers have observed the disk gas truncated, with the leading edge piling up like snowplowed material. The outer regions also show noticeably less cold gas, meaning star-forming fuel is running low. Observing program #18103 (PI: D. Thilker), using Hubble’s WFC3.

Independent verification: A ScienceDaily recap on 2026-06-01 for the same topic confirms the same figures and key points—about 63 million light-years away, a black hole of about 100 million solar masses, closest approach to M87 in about 200–300 million years, and the effects of ram pressure along with reduced cold gas—consistent with ESA/NASA.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker and the MAUVE-HST Team
Data as of: ESA/Hubble / NASA press release 2026-05-29
#Hubble #astronomy

The “chandelier” star cluster captured by Hubble: a globular cluster NGC 6723 in the direction of Sagittarius, about 27,000 light-years away—it's not a one-and-done star-formation event.

According to an ESA/Hubble and NASA joint press release on 2026-06-26: NGC 6723 is sometimes also called the Chandelier Cluster, made up of tens of thousands to over a million gravitationally bound stars. It lies about 27,000 light-years away in Sagittarius. The Milky Way is known to contain more than 150 globular clusters; these objects often exceed 10 billion years in age, and are among the earliest structures to form in the Milky Way.

A key point of emphasis: For a long time, it was thought that all the stars in a globular cluster formed at the same time and had the same chemical composition. Two rounds of Hubble observations changed this simple story. First, observation program #10775 (PI: Sarajedini) used visible and near-infrared imaging to survey 65 globular clusters in the Milky Way. Later, program #13297 (PI: Piotto), leveraging ultraviolet sensitivity, detected subtle differences in chemical composition and estimated an age spread. For NGC 6723, the evidence indicates that there were two episodes of star formation occurring very close together—the second episode happened within about 634 million years after the first. For a cluster older than 10 billion years, that gap is essentially a “blink.”

Independent verification: A Live Science report dated 2026-08-30 on the same topic confirmed the approximately 27,000 light-year distance, the Sagittarius location, the ~634 million-year separation between the two star-formation episodes, and that the cluster is not a single, simple stellar population—consistent with the ESA/NASA press release.

Image source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto
Data as of: ESA/Hubble / NASA press release 2026-06-26
#Hubble #astronomy

In this star-forming region inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, the LH 95 area: blue-white blazing stars are embedded in a blood-red hydrogen cloud, like fireworks within smoke.

According to a NASA Science press release dated 2026-07-03: LH 95 lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, and is a member of a star-forming complex—where low-mass “protostars” and heavier blue supergiants are squeezed together. Among the brightest blue stars, at least about three times the Sun’s mass; ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds heat the surrounding hydrogen while shaping the nebula. Denser dust resists erosion, and before the glowing hydrogen gas, dark filaments stand out. In the image, blue corresponds to shorter visible wavelengths; red overlaps longer visible light and part of the near-infrared. The deep crimson comes from hydrogen’s Hα emission, a hallmark of star-formation activity.

Key figures: In this region, Hubble has identified about 2,500 pre-main-sequence stars—stars that have gathered most of their mass but have not yet ignited hydrogen fusion. They are still accreting material from the surrounding gas-and-dust disks. The accretion rate declines with age, but the process can last for millions of years. In the same scene, multiple generations of stars are seen side by side, showing that star formation didn’t finish in a single brief burst, but dragged on for a long time.

Independent recheck: Coverage and confirmations by ScienceDaily (2026-07-05) and SciTechDaily (2026-07-04) restating the same story confirm the same key points—about 2,500 pre-main-sequence stars, blue stars shaped with ≥3 times the Sun’s mass, Hα as a star-formation indicator, and multiple generations of stars lined up—consistent with NASA.

Image source: NASA, ESA, and N. Da Rio (University of Virginia), G. De Marchi (ESA/ESTEC), D. Gouliermis (Heidelberg University); processed by Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University)
Data as of: NASA Science press release 2026-07-03; image release date 2026-07-03
#Hubble #Astronomy