{"id":604601,"date":"2026-04-25T00:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604601\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T00:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:21:24","slug":"nasas-hubble-space-telescope-marks-36-years-in-orbit-with-stunning-brand-new-image-of-cosmic-sea-slug-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604601\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA&#8217;s Hubble Space Telescope marks 36 years in orbit with stunning brand new image of \u2018Cosmic Sea Slug\u2019: PHOTOS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA is celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope in Earth\u2019s orbit, sharing a new image of the Trifid Nebula, nicknamed the \u201cCosmic\u00a0Sea Slug,\u201d first revealed in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>The school-bus-sized telescope has since made nearly 1.7 million observations, targeting about 55,000 astronomical objects.<\/p>\n<p>Its discoveries have resulted in over 22,000 scientific papers and more than 1.3 million citations, making it one of the most influential scientific instruments ever built.<\/p>\n<p>Hubble was launched on April 24, 1990.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4000\" height=\"3871\" data-modal-image=\"39186838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hubble-s-view-trifid-nebula-126089300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39186838 unset-max-height\"  \/>NASA is celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with a stunning new look at the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,000 light-years away. Powerful ultraviolet light from massive stars has carved out this glowing bubble, triggering new waves of star birth. First imaged in 1997, Hubble revisits this scene nearly 30 years later with sharper vision. The image reveals a structure nicknamed the \u201cCosmic Sea Slug,\u201d including a jet from Herbig-Haro 399, showing how young stars actively shape their surroundings. NASA\/ESA\/STScI et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39187160\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1009\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pointing-head-dense-cloud-directly-126321091.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39187160 unset-max-height\"  \/>The first image of the Trifid Nebula taken in 1997. NASA<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186737\" width=\"1024\" height=\"755\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hubble-space-telescope-earths-orbit-126297953.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39186737 unset-max-height\"  \/>Hubble Space Telescope in Earth\u2019s orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186741\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/distinguished-jaw-dropping-gallery-cosmic-126298012.jpg\" alt=\"Hubble captured a huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds of the supermassive star Eta Carinae.\" class=\"wp-image-39186741 unset-max-height\"  \/>Hubble captured a huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds of the supermassive star Eta Carinae. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186736\" width=\"1024\" height=\"988\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297963.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble.\" class=\"wp-image-39186736 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186738\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mosaic-image-one-largest-ever-126298010.jpg\" alt=\"A mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by Hubble of the Crab Nebula, is a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion.\" class=\"wp-image-39186738 unset-max-height\"  \/>A mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by Hubble of the Crab Nebula, is a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star\u2019s supernova explosion. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.93945313;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186744\" width=\"554\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/000-light-years-earth-direction-126298019.jpg\" alt=\"Planetary nebula IC 418 lies about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lepus.\" class=\"wp-image-39186744\"  \/>Planetary nebula IC 418 lies about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lepus. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186747\" width=\"1024\" height=\"959\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/looking-like-glittering-cosmic-geode-126298000.jpg\" alt=\"A glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula.\" class=\"wp-image-39186747 unset-max-height\"  \/>A glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186748\" width=\"1024\" height=\"497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297999.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186748 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186743\" width=\"1024\" height=\"911\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6302-known-butterfly-nebula-observe-126297998.jpg\" alt=\"Hubble trained on NGC 6302, known as the &quot;Butterfly Nebula,&quot; to observe it across a more complete spectrum of light, from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared, helping researchers better understand the mechanics at work in its technicolor &quot;wings&quot; of gas.\" class=\"wp-image-39186743 unset-max-height\"  \/>Hubble trained on NGC 6302, known as the \u201cButterfly Nebula,\u201d to observe it across a more complete spectrum of light, from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared, helping researchers better understand the mechanics at work in its technicolor \u201cwings\u201d of gas. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186750\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hubble-snapshot-mycn18-young-planetary-126297997.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39186750 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.98535156;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186745\" width=\"581\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297996.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186745\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186735\" width=\"985\" height=\"697\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297995.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186735 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186740\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297976.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186740 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186742\" width=\"1024\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297977.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186742 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39186746\" width=\"1024\" height=\"703\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cosmic-sight-imaged-hubble-36-126297974.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit.\" class=\"wp-image-39186746 unset-max-height\"  \/>A cosmic sight imaged by Hubble in its 36 year orbit. NASA\/ESA\/Hubble et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA is celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope in Earth\u2019s orbit, sharing a new image&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9829,31079,12654,718,262886,79,193,13059,1507],"class_list":{"0":"post-604601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-slideshow","9":"tag-hubble","10":"tag-hubble-space-telescope","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-nypost","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-space-program","16":"tag-stars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}