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After 35 years in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope is marking its anniversary not with speeches, but with a fresh gift to the cosmos: a new suite of breathtaking images. Launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, Hubble has become one of the most iconic scientific instruments in history — a machine that turned a fuzzy mystery into a clear-eyed exploration of the universe.
"Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. "Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system."
That sense of wonder has never faded.
Perched in low Earth orbit, far from the distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has given humanity its clearest view of space — capturing everything from star births and asteroid collisions to the grand structure of distant galaxies. Its imagery has not only driven scientific discovery but also captivated millions, turning astrophysics into something personal, poetic, and profoundly relevant.
The early days weren’t perfect. A flaw in its primary mirror, discovered shortly after launch, threatened to doom the mission. But a daring shuttle service mission in 1993 fixed the optics, transforming a PR nightmare into a testament to human ingenuity.
Over the decades, five servicing missions between 1993 and 2009 upgraded the telescope’s cameras, computers, and systems, ensuring it could keep up with scientific ambitions. Today, Hubble has recorded nearly 1.7 million observations and contributed to over 22,000 scientific papers — data that’s been cited more than 1.3 million times.
Among its many breakthroughs: providing the first observational evidence of black holes in galactic centers, measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe (leading to a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011), and capturing the earliest galaxies through its deep field images. It also paved the way for the detection of exoplanet atmospheres, redefining the search for life beyond Earth.
And its legacy is far from over.
Hubble’s enduring value is reflected in its successor: the Habitable Worlds Observatory. With a much larger mirror and unprecedented sensitivity, this new mission aims to pick up where Hubble left off — with the goal of identifying potentially habitable planets around nearby stars.
“The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories,” said Domagal-Goldman, “and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble.”
