Hubble’s best images, 35 years since its launch

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the legendary space telescope’s launch, here are 35 of our favorite images it has captured.
By | Published: April 24, 2025

This image of planetary nebula NGC 2899 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

In the 35 years since the Hubble Space Telescope flew to space, it has taken pictures of comets, merging galaxies, planets, supernova remnants, and more.

The first-of-its-kind telescope — a joint NASA and European Space Agency effort — was lofted aboard the shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Since then it has made nearly 1.7 million observations, looking at approximately 55,000 astronomical targets. From these data, researchers have published 22,000 papers that have been cited in the scientific literature 1.3 million times.

To acknowledge these accomplishments, we have put together an album of some of the best (or at least, some of our favorite) images from the telescope’s prolific career. Here’s hoping Hubble will be teaching us more about the cosmos for years to come.

This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, depicts GAL-CLUS-022058s, located in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). Credit: Saurabh Jha (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey); Acknowledgement: Leo Shatz
The Veil Nebula is one of the most spectacular supernova remnants in the sky, extending 110 light-years across and covering an area of sky six times larger than the full moon. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team
A vast stellar nursery is located 4,000 light-years away at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI
Astronomers used the Hubble Space telescope to revisit one of its most iconic subjects, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula (M16). Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
This image shows a magnified view of the magnificent spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
In Caldwell 69, also cataloged as NGC 6302 and commonly known as the Butterfly or Bug Nebula, layers of gas are being ejected from a Sun-like star. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our Moon. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Ehrenreich (Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG)/CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier)
NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy, taken March 11, 2025. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the trailing arms of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Paul Sell (University of Florida); Acknowledgement: Leo Shatz
The Flame Nebula is a large star-forming region in the constellation Orion that lies about 1,400 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and N. Da Rio (University of Virginia); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
Located in Cassiopeia, not far from Caldwell 17, Caldwell 18 is a dwarf galaxy and a satellite of the Andromeda galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Ferguson (University of Edinburgh, Institute for Astronomy); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows a cosmic oddity, dwarf galaxy DDO 68. Credit: NASA & ESA;
Acknowledgment: A. Aloisi (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Liller 1 is only 30,000 light-years from Earth — relatively nearby in astronomical terms — but it lies within the Milky Way’s ‘bulge’, the dense and dusty region at our galaxy’s center. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro
In 2011, the Hubble Space Telescope became the first Earth-based telescope to snap an image of the auroras on Uranus. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Lamy/Observatoire de Paris
This view of Saturn from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken in 2019. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL Team
Caldwell 60 (NGC 4038) and Caldwell 61 (NGC 4039) are known as the Ringtail or Antennae galaxies. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
This image, obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on February 8, 2004, shows an expanding halo of light around a distant star named V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon). Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
The image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, represents the sharpest view ever taken of this region, called the Orion Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA), and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
In this Hubble Space Telescope composite image taken in April 2013, the Sun approaches Comet ISON. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The Tarantula Nebula is a raucous region of star birth that resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (STScI)
The Bubble Nebula is 7 light-years across — about one-and-a-half times the distance from our Sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri — and resides 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Mars taken on December 29th, 2024. Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy, taken March 11, 2025. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
The image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
M82 or the Cigar galaxy, shines brightly. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), and P. Puxley (National Science Foundation)
The majestic spiral galaxy Caldwell 30, also cataloged as NGC 7331, is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way, as its size, shape, and mass are similar to our galaxy’s. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University)
The Horsehead Nebula is part of a much larger complex in the constellation Orion. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Credit: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA)
This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet Jupiter in a color composite of ultraviolet wavelengths. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Wong (University of California – Berkeley), G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The 100 million-year-old globular cluster, NGC 1850, is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA and P. Goudfrooij (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The Crab Nebula is an expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed a nearby planetary nebula called NGC 5189. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Up Next