You must know all about the Hubble Space Telescope already, but a refresher never hurt anybody: The object—launched into orbit by NASA back in 1990—is one of the largest telescopes to have ever been blasted into space and it is still fully operational today.
On April 24th of this year, Hubble turns 30. Although celebrations were planned, the advent of the coronavirus has unfortunately caused schedule changes. Events that were supposed to take place in concert with the anniversary date are being pushed back.
Space aficionados shouldn't worry, though: there is a still a way for you to appreciate the power of the telescope while sitting at home.
NASA has released this nifty tool that is capable of pulling up pictures the telescope took on specific days. "Hubble explores the universe 24 hours a day, seven days a week," reads the website. "That means it has observed some fascinating cosmic wonder every day of the year, including on your birthday."
To pull up the desired picture, just select a date on the dropdown menu and see what comes up.
Were you, perhaps, born on March 20? Expect a photo of colliding galaxies NGC 6745 taken back in 1996. The result includes a little explainer. In this case: "The larger spiral galaxy boasts an intact nucleus as it interacts with the smaller, passing galaxy that is nearly out of the frame to the lower right."
Feel free to play around on the website and share your results on social media using the hashtag #Hubble30.