Honestly, everyone thought the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would just shove Hubble into a closet and forget about it. It’s been decades. Hubble is 36 years old this year. It’s got "aches and pains" in its hardware that would make any engineer sweat. But if you've seen the Hubble Space Telescope latest images released this January 2026, you know this "old" bird still has a few tricks that Webb simply can't pull off.
While Webb is busy peering into the infrared heat of the deep past, Hubble is still our primary set of eyes for ultraviolet and visible light. It's a different kind of vision. This month, NASA and the ESA dropped a series of photos that didn't just look pretty—they actually changed what we know about how the universe "breathes."
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The "Cloud-9" Discovery: Seeing What Isn't There
The biggest shocker from the Hubble team on January 5, 2026, was the unveiling of something nicknamed Cloud-9.
This isn't a galaxy. It’s not a nebula. It is a "starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud." Imagine a massive ghost floating in space that refuses to grow stars. Astronomers think it’s a "relic"—a piece of the early universe that just stopped evolving.
Why does this matter? Because we usually find dark matter by looking at how it tugs on stars. But Cloud-9 has no stars. Hubble found it by seeing how the gas inside it behaves, providing a rare look at a "dark-matter-dominated" object that hasn't been polluted by stellar fire. It's basically a window into the "Dark Universe" that we’ve been trying to crack for years.
The Interstellar Visitor: 3I/ATLAS and the Sunward Jet
If you want to see something truly weird, look at the images of Comet 3I/ATLAS.
This is only the third interstellar object we’ve ever caught passing through our solar system. In January 2026, Hubble captured a "triple jet" structure coming off the comet. Here’s the kicker: one of the jets is pointing toward the Sun.
Usually, comet tails blow away from the Sun because of solar wind. It’s like hair blowing in a fan. But 3I/ATLAS has a "sunward anti-tail" that extends nearly 400,000 kilometers—roughly the distance from Earth to the Moon. Dr. Avi Loeb and other researchers are currently arguing over whether this is just weird ice physics or something more "anomalous." Hubble’s sharp visible-light resolution is the only reason we can see these thin, tightly collimated jets at all.
Star Birth in Real-Time: Orion and Lupus 3
While the big discoveries get the headlines, the "bread and butter" of the 2026 releases are the stellar nurseries.
- Lupus 3: A ghostly cloud about 500 light-years away in the Scorpius constellation. Hubble's latest snap shows "T Tauri" stars—basically toddlers in the star world—screaming out radiation that carves holes in the surrounding gas.
- Orion Molecular Cloud (HOPS 181): This month's data shows a protostar buried deep in orange dust. You can actually see the "outflow cavities" where the baby star's magnetic poles are shooting jets of material like a cosmic pressure washer.
- The Carina Nebula: On January 5, 2026, a new high-res shot of the Carina Nebula was released, showing white-blue stars burning through the dust with an intensity that infrared telescopes often blur out.
The "Hubble Tension" and Galaxy Deaths
We’ve also got some new "detective work" images. Hubble has been working with Webb to look at Circinus Galaxy, a nearby spiral. While Webb looked at the "dusty donut" feeding the central black hole, Hubble provided the wide-angle context that shows how that energy affects the entire galaxy's arms.
More importantly, images of gravitationally lensed supernovae (like SN Ares and SN Athena) are being used right now to solve the "Hubble Tension." This is a fancy way of saying that the universe is expanding at a speed that doesn't match our math. By watching how gravity warps the light of these exploding stars into multiple images, Hubble is helping us decide if our understanding of physics is just... wrong.
Is the End Near? The Truth About Hubble’s Health
You might have heard the rumors. "Hubble is falling!" "The gyros are dead!"
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Here is the deal: Hubble is currently operating in one-gyro mode.
For years, it used three gyros to stay steady. Now, to save the hardware, NASA is running it on just one, with another kept in reserve. It makes the telescope a bit slower to point, and it can't track objects quite as fast, but the science hasn't stopped.
The real threat isn't the cameras; it's the air. Even though Hubble is 320 miles up, there’s still a tiny bit of atmosphere that creates "drag." Because solar activity is high right now, the atmosphere is "puffed up," causing Hubble to sink faster. Current models suggest it could reenter the atmosphere and burn up as early as 2029, though the median date is more like 2033.
Actionable Insights for Space Fans
If you want to keep up with these images before they hit the news cycle, you don't have to wait for a NASA press release.
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- Check the "Picture of the Week": The ESA/Hubble site updates every Monday. This is where the raw, beautiful stuff usually debuts.
- Use the Hubble Heritage Archive: If you're a tech nerd, you can actually access the raw FITS files (the data before it’s turned into a "pretty" photo) and process them yourself using software like PixInsight or even GIMP.
- Watch the 35th Anniversary Releases: Since 2025 marked the 35th year, NASA has been re-releasing "classic" targets like the Sombrero Galaxy and the Eagle Nebula using 2026 processing techniques. The difference in detail is night and day compared to the 90s versions.
- Follow the Comet 3I/ATLAS Tracking: This visitor is moving fast. The next few months of Hubble observations will be the last chance we get to see an interstellar object this close for probably another decade.
Hubble isn't a "backup" to Webb. It's a partner. While Webb sees the heat, Hubble sees the light—and in 2026, that light is still telling us stories we never expected to hear.