15 photos to watch breathlessly

2021 will go down in the books as a year in which more emphasis than ever was placed on space. We’ve seen all kinds of private organizations take their first big steps into space (or on the fringes of it), and in the meantime, Hubble is still not retired. Help is on the way, but so far the space telescope has managed to take some great pictures. Most of this year’s best space photos have come from Hubble. Travel to space in 2021 with 15 photos.

The Northern Lights in the Netherlands

We are starting our trip to the Netherlands, as there was also quite a bit of space to see this year. We were able to see the Northern Lights several evenings while looking at the sky in the distance. This is due to a solar flare that fired electrically charged particles at our earth, which led to a beautiful northern lights effect.

Crew dragon

We have already written that space is increasingly becoming a playground for private parties. One of those parts is SpaceX, which has docked its Crew Dragon Endeavor to the International Space Station. A great photo has been taken of Crew Dragon moving through space.

Veil Nebula

Looks like a graphic designer made a background for Windows, but it really is a real photo of this beautiful Veil Nebula, with the remains of a supernova.

Ice dunes on Mars

Few things are as photogenic as the dunes of Mars. Especially when they also have frozen dots, giving you a great game of the red planet with white edges. silver linings!

maternity ward

Curious what it looks like when a new star is born (you can’t tell in this case). Hubble took a great photo of the star nursery: AFGL 5180. It’s a beautiful nursery!

Move around Poolster

We think the North Star is the brightest star in our solar system, but you don’t know AG Carinae yet. It is one of the brightest stars and will soon come to an end after a life of millions of years.

Jupiter

Hubble has taken some great photos of Jupiter before, but this one is very special because it was captured in ultraviolet light. Thank you Wide Field Camera 3 for this breathtaking shot of the special atmosphere of the gigantic planet.

black Star

The neighboring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is very beautiful to see because a black star exploded there once. Very impressive, to see how it still leaves its mark a thousand years ago.

Spiral arm

The stars never have the most exciting names: take for example NGC 2276. Still, you had better remember this name, because it truly is a beauty that also ensures the birth of new stars with its spiral arms.

NGC 1300

There is also a star called NGC 1300, which was captured by MUSE and ALMA. The assembly of the images reveals a huge pop of color that secretly reveals the presence of cold gas.

ISS

The International Space Station is extremely important for space research, but sometimes beautiful photos of our Earth are also taken. For example, that of the Northern Lights. It’s wonderful that you see a piece of the ISS and a lot of Earth with these beautiful Northern Lights. Maybe not the sharpest good photo, but a nice shot nonetheless:

Very large telescope

The centerpiece of ESO is the Very Large Telescope. He took a superb shot of NGC 4254. This galaxy is also a place where many young stars come to life.

Mars-selfie

Robots who are doing their best on Mars to collect samples and photo material for us should of course not be missing from this list. Above all, the Perseverance and Ingenuity selfie remains a fine record. We want more!

diamonds

We usually see stars quite far from each other, but there are also places in the universe where the stars are crowded very close to each other. NGC 6397 is one of those places and it’s like looking at a treasure chest full of diamonds. Hey Lucie!

Hubble Observatory

The Hubble Telescope also captured a beautiful image of NGC 1317, located 55 million light years from Earth: