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Happy birthday Hubble (Image: NASA)
Spiral galaxy NGC 1300
(Image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)
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Zolt Levay, leader of the Hubble imaging group at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland
“This is the prototypical example of a barred spiral galaxy… Amazing details appear in the colour composite: beautifully resolved spiral arms and dust lanes to the bright nucleus. And the disc is transparent enough to see distant background galaxies, which provides a dramatic feeling of depth.”
Mars and Comet Siding Spring
(Image: NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (PSI), C.M. Lisse (JHU/APL), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Curiosity Mars rover, @MarsCuriosity
“When I left Earth in 2011, I knew Mars would be my home for good. While the Hubble Space Telescope has taken lots of images of the Red Planet, this one is special because I know I’m on the surface, working. Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring appeared as just a smudge for me, but to Hubble it was glorious. This picture reminds me that sometimes you must change your point of view to see things as they really are.”
Galaxy cluster Abell 68
(Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage/ESA-Hubble Collaboration)
William Borucki, principal investigator of the NASA Kepler planet hunter
“The image I find most compelling is that of galaxy cluster Abell 68… I get a very eerie feeling when I see all those galaxies and realise that we have not picked up any sign of life from any exoplanet orbiting any of the billions of billions of stars those galaxies contain.”
An impossible task
Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York
“It’s like picking your favourite child. I can’t do it. What is certain, however, is that nobody ever required a caption to appreciate the images. They convey their own majesty and splendour without it.”
Eagle nebula
(Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, and J. Hester and P. Scowen, Arizona State University)
Jeffrey Hoffman, astronaut
“Despite having become almost a cliché, the Eagle nebula still gives me goosebumps when I realise that we are seeing the actual birth of stars. It’s biblical in its impact: ‘Let there be light!'”
Helix nebula
(Image: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner STScI, and T.A. Rector NRAO)
Barbara Mikulski, US senator for Maryland
“I keep a huge print of the ‘Eye of God’ Helix nebula hanging in my office… Every time I stand in front of it, I’m reminded not just of the insight and beauty that Hubble brought home, but also of the people – the engineers, scientists, technicians, support staff, cafeteria workers and custodians – who have all done so much to advance our understanding of the cosmos.”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Happy Birthday Hubble!”