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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Comes Face-to-Face with Spiral’s Arms
This Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the spiral galaxy NGC 3596. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is on display in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image that incorporates six different wavelengths of light. NGC 3596 is situated 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo, the Lion. British astronomer Sir William Herschel first documented the galaxy in 1784.
NGC 3596 appears almost perfectly face-on when viewed from Earth, showcasing the galaxy’s neatly wound spiral arms. These bright arms hold concentrations of stars, gas, and dust that mark the area where star formation is most active, illustrated by the brilliant pink star-forming regions and young blue stars tracing NGC 3596’s arms.
What causes these spiral arms to form? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, partly because spiral galaxies are so diverse. Some have clear spiral arms, while others have patchy, feathery arms. Some have prominent bars across their centers, while others have compact, circular nuclei. Some have close neighbors, while others are isolated.
Early ideas of how spiral arms formed stumped astronomers with the ‘winding problem’. If a galaxy’s spiral arms are coherent structures, its arms would wind tighter and tighter as the galaxy spins, until the arms are no longer visible. Now, researchers believe that spiral arms represent a pattern of high-density and low-density areas rather than a physical structure. As stars, gas, and dust orbit within a galaxy’s disk, they pass in and out of the spiral arms. Much like cars moving through a traffic jam, these materials slow down and bunch up as they enter a spiral arm, before emerging and continuing their journey through the galaxy.
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Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated May 09, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble Science Highlights
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By USH
The sun appears to be angry; a massive coronal mass ejection unveils a striking image resembling a grimacing demonic face. Striking are the letters DV (DeVil?) standing out on the forehead of the figure.
Obviously, the strange phenomenon captured by NASA's solar satellite SOLO EUI HRI 174 on 2024/05/11 is an ordinary natural occurrence triggered by the eruption of solar material but a fact is that a huge CME hit Earth's magnetic field on May 10th, leading up to the biggest geomagnetic storm in almost 20 year.
And it is not yet over as forecasts predict additional coronal mass ejections to follow closely behind, prolonging the storm well into the weekend. Anticipation mounts for widespread auroras, promising captivating displays over regions like Europa and the United States.
The storm has now reached level G5 which is the strongest level of geomagnetic storm, on a scale from G1 to G5. The solar storm could lead to disruption of satellite communication systems, low-frequency radio navigation systems such as GPS or even widespread power grid failures.
This unique solar phenomenon emphasizes once more the importance of constant monitoring and readiness in response to solar disruptions in order to prevent another Carrington event which was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1–2 September 1859.
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By NASA
4 min read
Glenn Hangar Has Long Been the Face of the Center
Painters completing work on NASA Glenn Research Center’s new hangar roof design in July 2016. It was the first time that the roof featured an insignia.Credit: NASA/Bridget Caswell The Flight Research Building, or hangar, at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has not only housed the center’s aircraft and Flight Operations team for decades, but has also served as a visual representation of the center for the public. NASA has taken advantage of the hangar’s size and shape — along with its location near the center’s main entrance, the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and multiple freeways — to raise awareness about Glenn to both the local community and Cleveland visitors.
In the fall of 1941, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) completed the first building at its Cleveland laboratory: the hangar. The letters “N-A-C-A” over a pair of wings were installed above its front and back aircraft entrances shortly thereafter. In 1946, “N-A-C-A” was painted in large white block letters onto the black roof facing the airport. This configuration remained in place for twelve years.
Pilot Bill Swann climbs into the cockpit of a McDonnell F2H-2B Banshee at the Lewis laboratory in February 1958. Eight months later, the NACA logo on the hangar was removed as the NACA became part of NASA. Swann, who joined the NACA in 1945, spent 35 years flying Lewis aircraft before retiring in 1980.Credit: NASA/Ernie Walker On Oct. 1, 1958, the NACA disbanded, and the laboratory was incorporated into NASA — the nation’s new space agency — as the Lewis Research Center. The next day, the “C” on the hangar roof was painted over with an “S,” and two weeks later, the NACA wings on the front and back were taken down and replaced with small “N-A-S-A” lettering.
Transformation of the hangar to reflect the lab’s Oct. 1, 1958, transition from the NACA to NASA and its rechristening as the Lewis Research Center. Credit: NASA During this period, the new agency asked its employees to submit concepts for an official seal. In December 1958, the NASA administrator approved the design of James Modarelli, a graphic illustrator at Lewis and head of the Technical Publications Division. Soon thereafter, he was asked to create a simpler, easier to reproduce version to be used more broadly. In early 1959, Modarelli came up with the large blue insignia that later became known as the “meatball.”
In September 1962, a large NASA insignia was installed on the front entrance of the Lewis hangar facing Brookpark Road, where it remained along with the “N-A-S-A” letters on the back and roof for nearly 30 years. In an effort to rebrand the agency in the mid-1970s, NASA replaced Modarelli’s blue insignia with the highly-stylized logo type, also known as “the worm.” Although the change of logos was mandated, the meatball never fully went away, and it remained on the front of the Lewis hangar.
Workers install the NASA insignia on the front of the Lewis Research Center hangar on Sept. 14, 1962. The new sign replaced small “N-A-S-A” letters.Credit: NASA
With its fiftieth anniversary approaching in 1991, the center began developing strategies to improve its visibility in the community. The most significant action was a redesign of the hangar graphics. In November 1990, the large red worm logo was installed on the front, and “Lewis Research Center” was added below with lighting to make graphics visible at night.
The Lewis Research Center hangar in December 1994 featuring the red NASA worm logo and the light fixtures to make it visible at night.Credit: NASA/Tom Jares In 1992, new NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin decided to reinstate the meatball as the agency’s insignia to improve morale. Two large new meatball signs were constructed in the center’s shops to replace the worm on the front of the hangar and take the place of the 35-year-old insignia on the back. To mark the occasion, the center invited the retired Modarelli to participate in a rededication event at Lewis on Oct. 1, 1997. Modarelli and many of the 250 attendees signed their names on the back of the emblem, which remained above the back entrance until 2022.
In 1993, Congress decided to rename the Cleveland facility the Glenn Research Center. By early 1999, the Lewis Research Center text on the front of the hangar was changed to “Glenn Research Center” with “Lewis Field” in smaller type underneath.
The hangar roof was painted white in the early 1990s, first with black “N-A-S-A” letters, then with pale blue ones. In 2016, the center chose to repaint the roof with a large NASA meatball insignia, with “Glenn Research Center” in text below.
The meatball remains today, a larger-than-life symbol of NASA Glenn’s presence in the community.
Read more about the development and applications of the NACA and NASA logos and insignias: https://go.nasa.gov/3FcOGe5
Robert S. Arrighi
NASA’s Glenn Research Center
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By NASA
On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions called Jet N7. The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. The low angle of sunlight highlights the complex topography of features in this region, which scientists have studied to better understand the processes playing out in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
As often occurs in views from Juno, Jupiter’s clouds in this picture lend themselves to pareidolia, the effect that causes observers to perceive faces or other patterns in largely random patterns.
Citizen scientist Vladimir Tarasov made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 4,800 miles (about 7,700 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 69 degrees north.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.
Image credit:
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Vladimir Tarasov © CC BY
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By NASA
The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions called Jet N7. The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. The low angle of sunlight highlights the complex topography of features in this region, which scientists have studied to better understand the processes playing out in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
As often occurs in views from Juno, Jupiter’s clouds in this picture lend themselves to pareidolia, the effect that causes observers to perceive faces or other patterns in largely random patterns.
Citizen scientist Vladimir Tarasov made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 4,800 miles (about 7,700 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 69 degrees north.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Vladimir Tarasov © CC BY
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