sci21016 — Announcement

Release of the 2022 ESA/Hubble Calendar

29 December 2021

-By Bethany Downer -

To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble has released a new calendar for 2022.

The 2022 calendar features a selection of images from Press Releases and Pictures of the Week published during 2021. These include imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It can now be accessed electronically for anyone to print, share and enjoy (please see the links provided below).

The images featured in the calendar are as follows:

Cover: The Veil Nebula, which resides around 2100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, was the subject of new processing techniques in 2021, which brought out fine details of the nebula’s delicate threads and filaments of ionised gas.

January: The supernova remnant known as 1E 0102.2-7219, which is located roughly 200 000 light-years away. The gaseous knots in this supernova remnant are moving at different speeds and directions from the supernova explosion; those moving towards Earth are coloured blue in this composition and the ones moving away are shown in red. 

February: This image depicts GAL-CLUS-022058s, one of the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered in our Universe. It has been nicknamed the "Molten Ring", which alludes to its appearance and host constellation.

March: This snapshot showcases Arp 86, a peculiar pair of interacting galaxies which lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth. Arp 86 is composed of the two galaxies NGC 7752 and NGC 7753; NGC 7753 is the large spiral galaxy dominating this image, and NGC 7752 is its smaller companion. 

April: This comparison view shows puffing dust bubbles and an erupting gas shell — the final acts of the monster star AG Carinae, Hubble’s 31st Anniversary image in April 2021. The left image showcases the details of the ionised hydrogen and ionised nitrogen emissions from the nebula (in red), while the blue in the second image demonstrates the contrasting appearance of the distribution of dust that shines by reflected stellar light.

May: This packed image showcases the galaxy cluster ACO S 295, as well as a jostling crowd of background galaxies and foreground stars. Galaxies of all shapes and sizes populate this image, ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals. 

June: The open star cluster NGC 330 lies around 180 000 light-years away inside the Small Magellanic Cloud. The cluster — which is in the constellation Tucana (The Toucan) — contains a multitude of stars, many of which are scattered across this striking image.

July: This spectacular image shows the trailing arms of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. This is a strangely lopsided galaxy that is shaped by gravitational interaction and intense star formation.

August: Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is subtly distorted by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. Here the relatively nearby galaxy cluster MACSJ0138.0-2155 has lensed a significantly more distant (10 billion light years away) quiescent galaxy that has run out of the gas required to form new stars.

September: This star-studded image depicts NGC 6717, which lies more than 20 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. NGC 6717 is a globular cluster, a roughly spherical collection of stars tightly bound together by gravity. 

October: NGC4826 is a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. This galaxy is often referred to as the “Black Eye”, or “Evil Eye”, galaxy because of the dark band of dust that sweeps across one side of its bright nucleus.

November: These two interacting galaxies are so intertwined they have a collective name — Arp 91. This delicate galactic dance is taking place over 100 million light-years from Earth. The lower galaxy, which in this image looks like a bright spot, is known as NGC 5953, and the ovoid galaxy to the upper right is NGC 5954.

December: Hubble completed its annual grand tour of the outer Solar System in 2021, featuring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These planets are mostly composed of chilly gaseous soups of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, and methane around a hot, compact core.

Links

• Print-Ready 2022 Calendar File
• High Resolution Digital 2022 Calendar File
• Low Resolution Digital 2022 Calendar File
• 2021 ESA/Hubble Calendar
• 2020 ESA/Hubble Calendar

Contacts

Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble Chief Science Communications Officer
Email: bethany.downer@esahubble.org