Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month features a starry chandelier 💡
This is the globular cluster NGC 6723, also known as the Chandelier Cluster. Each of its ‘lightbulbs’ is an individual star 27,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer) 🏹 1/3
Official @ESA feed for #Hubble Space Telescope — the space-based observatory which has revolutionised modern astronomy. #BFFinSpace with @ESA_Webb
- Globular clusters contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy 👴⭐ with some clusters nearly as old as the Universe itself! Exactly how globular clusters form is not yet known... ... but observing programmes using Hubble have revealed clues to the history of globular clusters
00:00Read more: esahubble.org/images/potm260… 📷 @esa / @HUBBLE_space & @NASA , A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto 3/3 - Our #HubbleTopImage features masses of star formation ⭐🏭 This view of the star formation region N11 was captured by Hubble in 2010. N11 is the second largest star-forming region in our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and has produced some of the most massive
- 🆕 Hubble has watched an early galaxy transforming its neighbourhood! The galaxy MXDFz4.4 existed at the end of the Era of Reionisation, a period in our Universe during which the ‘fog’ that filled space 😶🌫️ became transparent or ionised. Astronomers are still trying toMXDFz4.4 contains tightly clustered young stars shining with ultraviolet light capable of ionising this opaque gas. This suggests that similar galaxies in the early Universe were responsible for the Era of Reionisation! 2/3Alongside Hubble, astronomers also used observations from @ESA_Webb (near-infrared light) and the @ESO Very Large Telescope (visible light). Read more: esahubble.org/news/heic2609/ 📷@NASA , @esa , STScI, I. Goovaerts, M. Rafelski, A. Koekemoer (STScI). Image Processing: A. Pagan
- Our #HubbleTopImage features Saturn 🪐 This one-of-a-kind Hubble image from 2009 features Saturn with its rings edge-on and both poles in view, offering a stunning double view of its fluttering aurorae! 1/2Created by the interaction of the solar wind with the planet's magnetic field 🧲 Saturn's aurorae are analogous to the more familiar northern and southern light on Earth. Read more: esahubble.org/news/heic1003/ 📷 @NASA , @esa , and Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester) 2/2
- 🆕 This relic from our galaxy’s formation has had its history revealed by @ESA_Webb and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope 🕵️♂️ 1/3Located in the bulge of our Milky Way galaxy, Terzan 5 resembles a globular cluster 🪩 a dense ball of ancient stars. However, observations from Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have revealed that it contains four distinct populations of stars. This makesBillions of years ago, similar primordial clumps spread out and merged to form the Milky Way’s bulge, but Terzan 5 remained intact, like a lump in an otherwise well-mixed cake batter! 🍰 Read more: esawebb.org/news/weic2611/ 📷 @NASA , @esa , @csa_asc , STScI, G. Zullo (University
- Our #HubbleTopImage features gravitational lensing 🔍 in Abell 1689! This Hubble image from 2010 shows the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, with the mass distribution of the dark matter in the gravitational lens overlaid in purple. The mass in this lens is made up partly of normal
- Our #HubbleTopImage features a galaxy 😈 which rules the neighbourhood! ESO 306-17 is a large, bright elliptical galaxy in the southern sky of a type known as a ‘fossil group’ due to their isolation. But are they really like fossils – what is left of a once-active community – or
- In the 2026 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb calendar, the month of June features the young star cluster Pismis 24, which is found in the Lobster Nebula 🦞✨ approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth. This is one of the nearest sites of massive star birth! Ready to print .pdf here:
- Spiralling towards the innermost reaches of the Virgo Cluster! ↩️ Access more space-themed .gifs at our giphy page: giphy.com/esahubble
GIF - Messier 88 (M88) is on a journey to the innermost reaches of the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than 1000 galaxies bound by gravity, orbiting the massive elliptical galaxy at the centre 👹🌌 1/3
00:00As M88 approaches, it will experience ram pressure stripping (its gas will be swept away as it pushes through the gas between galaxies in the cluster). This will affect its ability to form stars, and change the course of its evolution! 2/3Read more here: esahubble.org/images/potm260… 📷 @ESA / @Hubble_Space & @NASA , D. Thilker and the MAUVE-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) 🎶 Stellardrone - Billions and Billions 3/3 - Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month takes a journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster! Messier 88 (M88) is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). It is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than 1000As they move through space, they also orbit the cluster’s centre of gravity. M88 is on a long, perilous cosmic journey that will bring it into the innermost reaches of the cluster – and draw close to the monstrous galaxy at the centre 👹🌌 2/3M88 will be changed by its journey thanks to ram pressure stripping – a process in which a galaxy’s gas is swept away as it pushes through the gas between galaxies in a cluster. This will affect its ability to form stars, and change the course of its evolution. Read more:










