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Hubble at 25: anniversary of space telescope celebrated with stellar new images

The European Space Agency says that the fireworks depicted in the picture celebrate the telescope's silver anniversary

Friday 24 April 2015 14:51 BST

This glittering tapestry of young stars flaring into life in the star cluster Westerlund 2 has been released to celebrate the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 25th year in orbit and a quarter of a century of discoveries, stunning images and outstanding s (NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI) and the Westerlund 2 Science Team)

Spectacular new pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope have been released, marking 25 years since it was launched into orbit by the Space Shuttle.

On April 24, 1990, the shuttle carried Hubble up into space, making it the first telescope of its kind. And today the European Space Agency released a new image marking 25 years since it was launched.

The picture shows what the agency refers to as "silver anniversary fireworks", which are spewing out of a star cluster known as Westerlund 2 and made up of about 3,000 stars.

Astronomers took the picture by combining Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which looks at visible light, and the Wide Field Camera 3 which can see near-infrared. The image would not normally have been able to see because it is surrounded by dust, but the technology on the telescope allows astronomers to look through it.

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

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25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

A Hubble image of a pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the light from nearby stars in the Carina nebula, located 7,500 light years away

AP

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The sharpest view of the Orion Nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope, 2004–05

© NASA/ESA/M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

This picture taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion, released in 2005

Getty Images

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The star HD 184738, also known as Campbell’s hydrogen star, surrounded by plumes of reddish gas — the fiery red and orange hues are caused by glowing gases, including hydrogen and nitrogen

ESA/Hubble & NASA

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The tip of the three-light-year-long pillar in a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away from the Earth

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The Carina Nebula. Outflowing winds and intense ultraviolet radiation from the large stars shape the material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

This Hubble image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. As the two galaxies smash together, billions of stars are born, mostly in groups and clusters of stars. The brightest and most compact of these are called super star clusters.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Image of the Butterfly Nebula, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

A nebula named Knockout 4-55 (or K 4-55) photographed by Hubble in 2009

Getty

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The barred spiral galaxy M83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel. The Hubble photograph captures thousands of star clusters, hundreds of thousands of individual stars, and 'ghosts' of dead stars called supernova remnants

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Kepler's supernova remnant produced by combining data from NASA's three Great Observatories the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope shows the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A. It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope shows the Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation'. The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The Cone Nebula, an innocuous pillar of gas and dust

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

An infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a protostellar object LRLL 54361 and its rich cosmic neighbourhood, a region called IC 348

(NASA, ESA, and J. Muzerolle (STScI)

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, known as the Antennae Galaxies

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Siding Spring captured on Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope

Nasa

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula captured by the Hubble Telescope. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope shows Messier 57, the Ring Nebula

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Artist's concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed.

AP

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

A group of five galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet captured by Hubble. Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Illuminating: the 'Whirlpool Galaxy'

AP

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Mosaic of the Majestic Sombrero Galaxy

NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

This stunning image of NGC 1275 was taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in July and August 2006.

NASA, ESA and Andy Fabian (University of Cambridge, UK)

25 years of the Hubble Telescope

Even accounting for the aberration in Hubble's mirror, the space telescope's image (right) offers more clarity than what was generally possible with ground-based observations (left)

In 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched into orbit. But it won't immediately take over from Hubble, which will continue to be used alongside the new kit until it is retired.

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