Here's Hubble's best year by year from HubbleCast: 1990: Saturn Among the first images to be sent back from Hubble after its launch in April 1990, this image of Saturn is good by the standards of ground-based telescopes. 1991: Orion Nebula Although not perfectly sharp, this early image of the Orion Nebula nevertheless shows the rich colours and structures of this bright star-forming region. 1992: Herbig-Haro 2 Throughout the region of the Orion Nebula are numerous streamers of gas that come from newborn stars, known to astronomers as Herbig-Haro Objects. 1993: Messier 100 In late 1993, Hubble's teething problems were resolved in the first servicing mission. Before-and-after images of the core of spiral galaxy Messier 100 show how this dramatically improved the telescope's image quality. 1994: Shoemaker-Levy 9 hits Jupiter Soon after the astronauts repaired Hubble during the first servicing mission, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. 1995: Eagle Nebula Hubble's ima! ge of the 'pillars of creation' in the Eagle Nebula is one of its most famous. These huge, dusty structures enshroud pockets of ongoing star formation. 1996: NGC 6826 This image from 1996 shows a planetary nebula, which represents the other extremity of a star's life from the Eagle Nebula. Planetary nebulae form when Sun-like stars puff out their outer layers as they run low on fuel. 1997: Mars NASA's Mars Pathfinder probe was en route to Mars in 1997 while Hubble took this image. 1998: Ring Nebula ...
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