NASA's Hubble Space Telescope marks its 32nd birthday in April 2022.
To celebrate, it shared its observations of the Hickson Compact Group 40,
a close-knit collection of five galaxies.
Every year, Hubble brings the universe into greater focus, shedding new light on mysteries of the cosmos.
Here's a snapshot of Hubble's most recent discoveries.
Solar System
Hubble measured the biggest comet ever seen:
a 500 trillion- ton behemoth, 75-85 miles wide.
Hubble observed the atmospheres and weather on our solar system's gas giants,
showing storm winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot picking up speed,
and Saturn's northern bands shifting colors.
Scientists found new proof of water vapor in Ganymede and Europa's atmospheres.
These molecules came from their icy exteriors, rather than the vast oceans underneath.
Milky Way
Hubble captured this image of an aging red giant star, wrapped in an orange envelope of carbon.
This carbon is a byproduct of nuclear fusion,
and may one day be the building blocks of new planets and life.
Hubble captured the first ultraviolet image of a planet around another star.
Five times Jupiter's mass, PDS 70b is still growing, providing new insights into how gas giants form and grow.
Hubble spotted an expanding bubble of gas near the center of our galaxy.
Researchers believe a "mini-jet" from a supermassive black hole is impacting and inflating the bubble.
Jets burst from the black hole after it devours a star or gas cloud, like a cosmic burp.
Hubble found that white dwarfs – the hot, dense cores of burned-out stars – may continue nuclear fusion.
They still burn hydrogen on their surfaces, appearing younger than they actually are.
Extragalactic
Outside the Milky Way, Hubble noticed a black hole helping create stars, instead of consuming them.
A stream of gas connects it with a stellar nursery, jumpstarting clusters of newborn stars.
Astronomers were surprised to spot three strange celestial objects,
two of which were mirror images of each other.
They weren't identical twins, but warped views of a single galaxy.
Foreground galaxies caused a gravitational lens, magnifying and duplicating one galaxy image into three.
Gravitational lensing also allowed Hubble to detect the farthest individual star ever spotted.
Its light took 12.9 billion years to reach us,
giving us a glimpse back in time to when the universe was less than a billion years old.
As Hubble ushers in its 33rd year of discovery,
its observations will continue to expand humanity's knowledge of the cosmos.
[ MUSIC ]