Top 10 Iconic Space Images
Rio Sullivan |10 September 2020 | 9 mins
The shimmering infinity of the universe has been a source of wonder and awe for the human race since the dawn of time. Its boundless mystery and majestic beauty has enchanted, perplexed, and inspired countless generations of people on every continent across the globe.
Throughout the ages, astronomers and physicists - hand-in-hand with the latest technological tools - have strived tirelessly to unlock the secrets hidden within its captivating depths.
The medieval development of the telescope allowed us a deeper glimpse of the cosmos with the naked eye. However, it was not until the invention of the camera during the 19th century that we were finally able to forever freeze-frame the dynamic glory of the universe in the form of tangible images.
Photographs did not only allow a wider spectrum of people to enjoy the scintillating splendour of the cosmos in finer detail: it also paved the way for important advancements to be made in understanding its complex machinery.
Below are the top 10 pictures which were destined to change our perception of the universe forever.
10. The Birth of a Solar System
A solar system is a gravitationally bound system of planets which directly or indirectly orbits a sun. Our own solar system is believed to be more than 4.5 billion years old — and until very recently, only sketchy scientific speculation has provided clues as to how it came into existence.
However: in 2018, astronomers in Tokyo, Japan, made a significant breakthrough in unlocking this ancient mystery. With the aid of the sophisticated ALMA telescope placed in the high altitudes of the Chilean Andes, they identified what resembled the formation of a new solar system located within an outer dust ring of DM Tau — a young, sun-like star located in the Taurus constellation.
The image above captures the vivid, fiery tones of a protoplanetary disk — a rotating, circular space body composed of gas and dust rings encircling a young new star: the possible beginnings of a blossoming new solar system.
With two further recent studies in other parts of the globe making similar dust ring discoveries, promising progress could soon be made in understanding the birth of our solar system — and others like it.
9. Supernova 1987A
A supernova is the intense, brilliant explosion that results from drastic changes occurring within a star’s core, marking the beginning of the end of a star’s life cycle. Despite being one of the most dramatic events to occur within the cosmos, the sight of a supernova has seldom been beheld by the human eye.
However: fortune was destined to change. In 1987, the closest supernova to Earth in more than three centuries was observed by astronomers in the Southern hemisphere. Located 160,000 light-years away was Supernova 1987A — cloaked in a star-studded crimson haze within the Magellanic Cloud of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Not only was this striking scene snapped on camera, but by a stroke of luck, the supergiant star which was to become the supernova had also been studied prior to its dazzling demise — and the findings of this study provided verification for key nuclear theories related to supernovas.
8. The Europa Cracks
Europa is the smallest of the four moons of Jupiter, a group of moons often referred to as “Galilean” due to Galileo largely being credited with their discovery during the 17th century.
Between 1995–2003 NASA’s Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter — allowing a unique opportunity to take hundreds of photographs of Europa, and learn more about this obscure orb. The snapshots taken revealed a network of deep, copper-coloured grooves crisscrossing Europa’s icy surface, giving rise to considerable speculation on the cause of what became known as the ‘Europa Cracks’.
In August of 2020, new research at the Lunar and Planetary Institute made key findings to indicate that the cause of Europa’s cracks was a phenomenon known as ‘true pole wander’, whereby a shift of around 70 degrees occurred in Europa’s icy shell over the last several million years.
The impressive array of images gathered during the NASA orbit such as the one shown above made this key discovery possible. In addition, they provided impetus for the impending JUpiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) voyage to Europa — a mission aimed at finding evidence of organic life within the marbled moon’s watery realms.
7. Stars Orbiting a Black Hole
Black holes are regions of space wielding such intense gravitational force that no form of matter — even that as delicate as light — can escape from its depths.
Though the formation of black holes is believed to be connected to the collapse of stars, much mystery has surrounded their existence and inner workings — both before and since their official discovery in 1971.
So when almost 50 years later, in April of 2020, astronomers observed a small cluster of stars orbiting the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* — located at the centre of our very own Milky Way — it sent a ripple throughout the science world.
Not only was this the first time that a star had ever been observed orbiting a black hole (and one within our own solar system), but crucially, the finding also further cemented the validity of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity — a quest which had begun more than a century earlier.
6. The Hubble Deep Field
The Hubble Deep Field is a small section of the constellation Ursa Major, earmarked from a series of game-changing observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope 25 years ago.
During observations conducted in 1995 (and further expanded upon in the early 2000s), the Hubble telescope discovered a magnificent myriad of more than 10,000 obscure galaxies previously unknown to humankind — galaxies that existed before known sentient life.
The deepest image of the universe ever captured, this key discovery allowed a fascinating glimpse of what is only a fragment of the universe in its youth, hidden throughout the eons of time.
The image above depicts a section of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field — a glittering hub of 28 young galaxies, from a group of more than 500 of its kind found during the observations.
5. The Bullet Cluster
Composed from a blend of data, the image above captures the cool, hazy hues of Galaxy Cluster 1E 065756 — coined The Bullet Cluster. It is the most famous example of an unusual cosmic phenomenon whereby two clusters of galaxies, on their course through the cosmos, collide with one another.
During the process of a galaxy cluster collision, friction impels smaller groups of galaxies to slip out of the ethereal confines of surrounding gas clouds. In 2006, a study was undertaken of one of the Bullet Cluster’s sub-clusters using a variety of hi-tech telescopes.
When the technique of ‘gravitational lensing’ (a process whereby light traveling towards a subject is bent at its source) was used in the experiment, a landmark scientific breakthrough was made: the results provided the most solid historical evidence to date of the existence of dark matter.
4. A Black Hole
The elusive enigma of black holes has presented space science with one of the most intriguing and impenetrable mysteries ever known and has sparked debate within its circles for decades.
Then, in 2017, what was thought to be the impossible became reality. Using a network of sophisticated telescopes scattered strategically across the globe, within a galaxy known as M87–55 million light-years away from earth — a black hole was caught on camera for the first time ever.
The seminal snapshot above — an intense image of inky black and glowing amber — provides unprecedented physical evidence of black holes existing in our universe. Its capture was the result of more than 10 years of work, and the collaboration of 200 international researchers.
3. The Cosmic Microwave Background
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), is cosmic radiation believed to have been present from circa 400,000 years after the birth of the universe.
First measured in 1941, the CMB was re-examined in the 1960s by physicist Amo Penzias and astronomer Robert Wilson. Their experiments yielded key evidence that the early universe had high temperatures — providing solid support for the Big Bang Theory. Their work on the Cosmic Microwave Background later won the pair the Nobel Prize in Physics.
As technology progressed, so did the advancements. In the 1990s, a satellite called COBE made several key findings in relation to the composition of the CMB, and the Planck Satellite was later able to generate an awe-inspiring snapshot of this ancient frequency radiation.
The result was the oldest recorded image of the universal substance as we know it.
2. The VAR! Plate
The VAR! Plate refers to a photographic plate used by astronomer Edwin Hubble during his 1923 discovery which proved that other galaxies existed outside of our own Milky Way. The image above depicts the photographic plate number H335H — the plate involved in Hubble’s famous find.
Using a 100-inch Hooker telescope, Hubble found the first Cepheid variable star, coined M31, twinkling away brightly in the Andromeda galaxy — creating a landmark moment in astronomical science.
Upon the discovery of the M31, Hubble originally believed it to be a nova, a transient ‘new’ star and crossed out the ’N’ on the photographic plate he was using. This left the namesake exclamation of ‘VAR!’ (short for ‘variable’) vividly visible on the plate.
In addition to proving the existence of other galaxies, the discovery of Cepheid M31 also played a central role in establishing the cosmic distance scale — a group of distance-measurement techniques employed to measure the scale of the universe.
- The 1919 Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, obscuring the sun. With around 240 eclipses occurring in some form every century, solar eclipses have been a familiar and revered phenomenon worldwide throughout the ages.
However, on May 29 1919 a solar eclipse occurred which was unlike any other. It was to provide early confirmation for one of the most important physics theories of all time: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
Determined to put Einstein’s recently published theory to the test, two leading astronomers, — Sir Arthur Eddington and Sir Frank Dyson — spearheaded expeditions to different parts of the earth to measure the positions of stars during the eclipse. As the sun became shrouded in shadow, scores of snapshots were taken — including the picture above.
The deflection depicted in the images substantiated Einstein’s ideas — overturning 200 years of Newton-based gravitational theory, and laying an early foundation for the Sagittarius A* discovery earlier this year (see entry number 7), which further confirmed Einstein to be correct.
Images like these marked the dawning of a new era which was to profoundly — and permanently — change our understanding of space. The decades still to come promise only further wonders and wisdom to be revealed about the twinkling eternity beyond the veil of our visible skies.
