NASA's Hubble completes 200,000th orbit while hunting a reappearing supernova

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on September 19, 2026, more than 36 years after launch — having traveled over 5 billion miles and made more than 1.7 million observations. The milestone came while Hubble captured an image of galaxy cluster MACS J0417, part of an effort to catch supernova Athena reappearing through gravitational lensing, helping refine measurements of the universe's expansion rate. Athena is predicted to reappear between now and March 2027, and NASA expects Hubble to remain productive well into the next decade. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, M. Pascale (UCLA), A. Feild (STScI), A. Riess (STScI/JHU); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI); additional images/video via Getty Images