Technologies

Hubble Space Telescope Is 35: Don’t Miss These 4 Dazzling Anniversary Images

The world’s most famous telescope is celebrating in style with new views of Mars, nebulas and a galaxy that reminds us of home.

The most famous telescope in history has reached a major milestone — it’s 35 years old. The Hubble Space Telescope launched on a grand scientific adventure to study the cosmos on April 24, 1990. NASA and the European Space Agency are pulling out all the stops for the telescope’s 35th anniversary with the reveal of four stunning new space images.

The celebratory views include Mars, two nebulas and a galaxy. The variety of targets shows off Hubble’s versatility and ability to see not only into deep space, but also into our own solar system.

NASA dropped a host of superlatives with words like «transformative,» «evocative,» «engaging» and «accessible» in its anniversary release statement. It’s all true. Hubble’s discoveries have been covered in over 22,000 papers, but its influence reaches far beyond science journals. It has shaped the public’s view of our universe through groundbreaking images like the Pillars of Creation and the Hubble Deep Field.

Check out the anniversary images.

Mars, the frosty marble

Earth may be humanity’s favorite planet, but Mars is a close second. Hubble turned its gaze on the red planet at the end of 2024. The crisp views highlight the planet’s northern polar cap at the beginning of the Martian spring. Gauzy clouds make Mars look like a frosty marble.

Planetary nebula NGC 2899, a space butterfly

A white dwarf star lingers at the center of planetary nebula NGC 2899. This is one of the cosmic objects you can let your imagination run wild with. It resembles a misshapen butterfly or a moth in flight. ESA suggested the pinched middle looks like a half-eaten doughnut.

Gas and dust give the nebula its unique look. All this beauty traces to the tumultuous death of its central star.

Rosette Nebula and gas clouds

Hubble’s look at the Rosette Nebula focuses on a small part of a much larger formation.

The nebula is a place of active star formation. «Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image,» ESA said. «The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula.»

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335

NGC 5335 is a barred spiral galaxy like our Milky Way. Hubble’s image shows the distinctive bar across the middle of NGC 5335. «The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation,» said ESA. «Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals.»

Hubble hangs on

Hubble orbits Earth. Space is a tough place to live. The telescope’s designers planned to get 15 years of use out of it, but Hubble handily outlasted that goal.

Hubble’s longevity hasn’t been easy. The telescope has weathered an array of technical problems over the years. NASA dispatched five space shuttle servicing missions to Hubble, with the last in 2009.

There are no more space shuttles in operation, so the Hubble team handles all fixes from afar. That has meant some big changes to Hubble’s operations, particularly with the gyroscopes that help point it in the right direction. The Hubble team has had to get creative, but they’ve kept the aging observatory up and running and delivering fresh science and imagery.

Every Hubble anniversary feels like a triumph for the elderly space telescope. It may have a few more anniversaries left in it. NASA hopes it will continue operations into the 2030s. Long live Hubble.

Technologies

Google Rolls Out New Travel Features, Just in Time for Summer

Gemini can call around to find that one travel essential you forgot about.

It doesn’t matter that it’s late April. To me, it’s officially summer. With the days getting longer and warmer, and school wrapping up soon, a lot of us are dreaming of summer vacations.

Google launched some new travel features just in time to start planning those trips.

You might already be familiar with Google Flights and AI Mode, but Google’s two latest travel tools can help you round out the experience even more.

New Google travel features

On Friday, Google announced a new feature to track hotel prices and another that can help you in a packing mishap.

Track hotel prices with Google Search

Similar to how you can currently track flight prices, you can now toggle on price tracking for specific hotels on the Google Search results page or via google.com/hotels.

Last year, Google launched a feature that lets you track hotel prices for a specific city, but that only tracks one hotel you prefer.

On desktop, you can open Search, look up a hotel, then toggle on the new price tracking. On mobile, you find the price tracking option under the Prices tab. Once you toggle on price tracking, you’ll get email alerts when rates drop during your set dates, so you never miss a deal.

AI Mode will find products you forgot to pack

Picture this: You land in your dream tropical destination, open your suitcase and realize you forgot to pack sunglasses. A new feature in AI Mode will let you find products in stock nearby. Google’s agentic AI will call local stores for you to see if it has the products you’re looking for and any relevant deals.

To get started, you will just need to briefly describe your need, like «I forgot to pack polarized sunglasses. Where can I get some nearby?» From there, Gemini will call local stores and then send you results on where you can shop.

This tool launched directly on Search in November and is now rolling out over the coming weeks in AI Mode in the US.

For more travel advice, here’s the best time to shop for airline tickets and how to find cheap flights.

Technologies

Are You a Verified Human? Yes? That’s Exactly What AI Would Say!

World ID, an identity system designed to prove you’re human, is expanding to Tinder and concert ticket sales.

It’s hard out here for a human as artificial intelligence bots and agents increasingly take over the web, social media and even Hollywood. How does one prove that they are not a digital creation generated from large language models when engaging in, say, work meetings, online dating or buying concert tickets?

World ID is a platform designed to address this problem, with a familiar name behind it. It was founded in 2019 by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, along with Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, and has evolved from focusing on cryptocurrency into identity verification.

World announced it’s partnering with companies like Zoom to verify humans on calls and with dating service Tinder for online profile verification.

Zoom says it will integrate World ID Deep Face, «enabling real-time verification that meeting participants are human to strengthen trust in live communications.»

For Tinder, Match Group is trying out World ID for age verification on the dating app, starting in Japan. The site will add a verification marker to profiles for those who pass the human test.

World ID has also developed a tool called Concert Kit, a way for artists to sell event tickets with human verification to prevent sales to ticket bots.

It’s also working with companies such as Razer, DocuSign, Shopify and Coinbase for its World ID humanity verification.

It also offers a device for preorder, about the size of a soccer ball, called the Orb. (You can put a $100 deposit down if a futuristic-looking identity camera is on your wishlist.) The website says the Orb is an «open source device that verifies you are a unique human without knowing anything else about you.»