6 Famous Hubble Images and the Dates Behind Them

Every Hubble photograph has two stories: what it shows, and when it was taken. The dates matter more than most people realize. Some of the most famous images in astronomy were captured on days that might be personally meaningful to you, and NASA’s date-by-date archive means you can find out exactly what Hubble saw on yours.

Here are six of the most iconic, with the stories behind them.

1. The Hubble Deep Field (December 18 to 28, 1995)

The most important photograph Hubble ever took started as a gamble. Robert Williams, then director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, pointed Hubble at a patch of sky near the Big Dipper that appeared completely empty and held it there for ten consecutive days, across roughly 150 orbits and 342 separate exposures.

The astronomy community was skeptical. Telescope time is precious, and staring at nothing for ten days seemed like a waste. Then the data came back: roughly 3,000 galaxies in a speck of sky about 1/24-millionth of the whole. The “empty” patch was full of universes. If your birthday falls between December 18 and 28, this one is yours.

2. Pillars of Creation (April 1, 1995 and revisited 2014)

Three towers of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years away, where new stars are being born inside the columns. The original 1995 image became arguably the most reproduced astronomical photograph in history. For Hubble’s 25th anniversary, NASA reshot the pillars with the newer Wide Field Camera 3, producing the sharper, wider view most prints use today.

3. The Whirlpool Galaxy (January 19, 2005)

A face-on spiral galaxy 25 million light-years away, locked in a slow-motion gravitational dance with a smaller companion galaxy visible at the edge of the frame. The pink regions tracing its arms are star-forming zones. If you were born on January 19, the universe handed you one of the most beautiful galaxies in the sky.

4. Saturn on the Fourth of July (July 4, 2020)

Hubble photographed Saturn during its closest approach to Earth that summer, capturing the rings in crisp detail. It’s since become a favorite for July birthdays and, fittingly, Independence Day babies.

5. The Butterfly Nebula (March 13, 2020)

A dying star tearing itself apart at the center of two wings of superheated gas spanning more than two light-years. Planetary nebulae like this one are what our own Sun will eventually become. Dramatic, colorful, and strangely serene on a wall.

6. The Sombrero Galaxy (May 16, 2003)

A galaxy seen nearly edge-on, its dust lane forming the brim of a cosmic hat. One of the most distinctive silhouettes in the sky and a favorite for offices and dens, where its symmetry reads almost architectural.

Find the image behind your own date

These six are just the famous ones. NASA’s archive maps more than 1,830 Hubble photographs across all 366 days of the year, five options per date, and every one of them is printable through our Hubble Birthday Print builder. If you’re new to it, here’s how the whole thing works.

Enter any date, a birthday, an anniversary, the day everything changed, and see what Hubble saw. Then make it a museum-quality print, framed or print only, from $10.99.

Want the icons instead? Browse the full NASA and space collection for the Pillars, the Deep Field, and more. You might also like our comparison with custom star maps or the nursery version of this idea.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, STScI. Swell Scenes is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.