The Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and NASA has recently published an impressive “Cosmic Reef” picture, displaying the telescope’s capabilities. Hubble is part of a mission launched into space almost three years ago, whose primary goal is to offer humanity new clues for future research regarding the formation and evolution of the Universe.
The pictures taken by Hubble are portraying a couple of neighboring clouds of dust. The scientists have identified a giant red nebula, called NGC 2014 and a secondary smaller galaxy, the NGC 2020. Hubble has captured the two nebulas in all their glory, showing an impressive spectacle of colors and lights.
Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 30th anniversary with a stunning image from NASA
A scientist working for the Space Telescope Science Institute, Elena Sabbi, has recently declared for Space.com that the Hubble Telescope has reached an immense potential since it was first used for outer space observations. The quality of images provided is amongst the best ever captured.
The images that were recently posted are part of a sizeable star-forming area, identified by the scientists as the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is a satellite galaxy part of the Milky Way, which is located at a distance of around 163.000 light-years away from our planet.
After a series of studies, NASA has declared that the stars part of NGC 2014 are even more significant than our sun, while NGC 2020 features only one massive star whose light is more than 200.000 times brighter than the sunlight produced by the sun.
Gunther Hasinger, the director of the European Space Agency, has praised the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope. In his view, the help of its cutting-edge technology has inspired scientists worldwide and has amazed a whole generation of sky-watchers. In addition to this, he underlined the importance of excellent communication and partnership between his company and NASA.
