2.
A rose made of galaxies
This image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273 was released to
celebrate the 21st anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal
interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that the smaller galaxy has
actually passed through the larger one
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
“A study by the University of Michigan found that a
significant proportion of people shown a picture of a
galaxy, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, reported,
‘images like this show how small and fragile planet Earth is
in the context of the Universe.’ People respond to Hubble’s
remarkable astronomical images: Hubble images trigger
their intrinsic sense of wonder and satisfy their innate
curiosity. As the New York Times wrote in 2002, ‘The Hubble
Space Telescope... has taught us to see properties of a
universe humans have been able, for most of their history,
to probe only with their thoughts.’ Hubble has been a
source of awe-inspiring images for a quarter of a century.
Each year, Hubble’s education programs reach over
500,000 pre-service and in-service teachers in the U.S., and
over six million school c hildren use Hubble material in their
curricula. Science teachers across the nation can point to
an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and say,
‘only the United States can do this.’ A 2013 survey of nearly
10,000 undergraduate engineering majors found that
almost 1 in 5 identified ‘work at NASA’ as their dream job
(Forbes, 6/12/2013), and Hubble is a big part of that.
“Hubble has become ‘The People’s Telescope,’ and
has explored our solar system and beyond with acuity,
capability, and power. It is hard to imagine a world
without Hubble, without the beauty that Hubble has
brought, without the wonders that Hubble has shared.
We are fortunate to have been witness to this amazing
machine.”
— Dr. Jim Green
Planetary Science Division Director
NASA Headquarters
Washington, D.C.