Find the image taken in space on your birthday: with this game that went viral on social networks, NASA decided to invite everyone to celebrate at least virtually the 30 years of the Hubble Space Telescope, since the real celebrations were postponed to a later date due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The spiral galaxy NGC 2976 photographed on December 27, 2006 (source: Hubble, NASA / ESA)
Brought into orbit by the shuttle on April 24, 1990 thanks to the collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), Hubble has literally revolutionized astronomy, giving breathtaking images and precious information for researchers every day. Despite the troubled beginnings, marked by the defects of its main mirror, Hubble then rung success after success. His discoveries have allowed us to define exactly the age of the universe, to 'see' the first galaxies, to provide the first evidence on the existence of dark energy (which occupies about 70% of the universe) and on the gigantic holes blacks that occupy the center of some large galaxies.
The spiral galaxy NGC 2976 photographed on December 27, 2006 (source: Hubble, NASA / ESA)
To this day, "Hubble explores the universe 24 hours a day, seven days a week," NASA writes on its website. "This means that he has observed fascinating cosmic wonders every day of the year, including your birthday." To find out what was photographed by Hubble on that specific day, just go to the US space agency website and visit the page dedicated to the initiative, where you can enter the date of your birthday. A few seconds of waiting and the search engine extracts the corresponding image with a caption from the huge Hubble archive, which NASA invites to share on social media using the hashtag # Hubble30.
