The Hubble Space Telescope has been instrumental in astronomers’ understanding of the universe’s age, the presence of supermassive black holes at the centers of many galaxies, and the mapping of the enigmatic substance dark matter in 3D. The telescope’s groundbreaking discoveries have made it NASA’s most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in history, with a demand for its use being so high that it is currently oversubscribed by a factor of six-to-one.
Detailed Imagery of M76
The new image of M76 reveals countless dense knots of gas and dust ranging from 17 billion kilometers to 56 billion kilometers (10.6 billion miles to 34.8 billion miles) and each encompassing as much mass as three whole Earths. The material seen in the image is blasting out into space at a speedy two million miles per hour, which is equivalent to traveling from Earth to the Moon in just over seven minutes.