NASA and the ESA are celebrating the Hubble telescope's 25th anniversary and have released this stunning new image showing a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2.
“Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science.”
The sparkling centrepiece of Hubble’s anniversary fireworks is a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2, named for Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund who discovered the grouping in the 1960s. The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina.
Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, this astronomical 7.9 ft mirror has not only been bringing us breathtaking images, but giving us an in-depth knowledge into our universe and leading to breakthroughs in astrophysics. Let's hope there are many more to come.
25 Stunning Images Taken By The Hubble Telescope
(01 of25)
This infrared image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows part of NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula. The structure lies about 6400 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(02 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae. In 1994, Hubble first revealed the nebula's surprisingly intricate structures, including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas, and unusual shock-induced knots of gas. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA, ESA, HEIC, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(03 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Messier 57, the Ring Nebula. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA/ESA, C. Robert O'Dell (Vanderbilt University) via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(04 of25)
Jupiter's monster storm, the Great Red Spot, was once so large that three Earths would fit inside it. But new measurements by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the largest storm in our solar system has downsized significantly. The red spot, which has been raging for at least a hundred years, is only the width of one Earth. (credit:NASA/ESA)
(05 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation." The Hubble Space Telescope, one of NASA'S crowning glories, marks its 25th anniversary on Friday, April 24, 2015. With more than 1 million observations, including those of the farthest and oldest galaxies ever beholden by humanity, no man-made satellite has touched as many minds or hearts as Hubble. (NASA, ESA/Hubble, Hubble Heritage Team via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(06 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 4526. One of the brightest lenticular galaxies known, it has hosted two known supernova explosions, one in 1969 and another in 1994, and is known to have a supermassive black hole at its center with a mass of 450 million Suns. NGC 4526 is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt during an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for notable images that have never been seen by the general public. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (ESA/Hubble & NASA via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(07 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the entire Crab Nebula. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA, ESA, Allison Loll/Jeff Hester - Arizona State University via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(08 of25)
The majestic dusty spiral, NGC3370, looms in the foreground in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released Sat. Sept. 6, 2003. Recent observations taken with th Advanced Camera for Surveys show intricate spiral arm structure spotted with hot areas of new star formation. But this galaxy is more than just a pretty face. Nearly 10 years earlier NGC 3370, in the constellation Leo, hosted a bright exploding star In November 1994, the light of a supernova in nearby NGC3370 reached Earth. The total exposure time for this galaxy is extremely long (about one full day), and the combined image provides one of the deepest views taken by Hubble. As a result, thousands of distant galaxies in the background are easily discernable.(AP photo/NASA (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(09 of25)
The spiral galaxy known as Messier 81, or M81. GALEX Orbiter,Hubble Space Telescope,Spitzer Space Telescope. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images) (credit:Universal History Archive via Getty Images)
(10 of25)
Embargoed to 1330 Thursday September 29The NASA/ESA Hubble Space undated handout photo of of dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II. (credit:NASA ESA Hubble/PA Archive)
(11 of25)
This July 2004 Hubble Space Telescope view supplied Thursday Nov.10, 2005 by NASA and the European Space Agency shows one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. At the center of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster. A torrent of radiation from the hot stars in the cluster eats into denser areas around it, creating a fantasy sculpture of dust and gas. The dark, intricately beaded edge of the ridge, seen in silhouette, is particularly dramatic. It contains several small dust globules that point back towards the central cluster, like windsocks caught in a gale.(AP Photo/NASA-ESA) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(12 of25)
Image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows never-before-seen spirals of dust swirling across trillions of miles of interstellar space. This image, obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on February 8, 2004, is Hubble's latest view of an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon). The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago. V838 Mon is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy. (credit:NASA)
(13 of25)
In this image provided by NASA Tuesday Sept. 13, 2005 the Hubble Space Telescope "caught" the Boomerang Nebula in these new images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes (or cones) of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Over the last 1,500 years, nearly one and a half times the mass of our Sun has been lost by the central star of the Boomerang Nebula in an ejection process known as a bipolar outflow. The nebula's name is derived from its symmetric structure as seen from ground-based telescopes. Hubble's sharp view is able to resolve patterns and ripples in the nebula very close to the central star that are not visible from the ground. (AP Photo/NASA) (credit:AP)
(14 of25)
This January 2005 image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and a companion galaxy. The Whirlpool's two curving arms are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), Hubble Heritage Team STS via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(15 of25)
The Bug Nebula, shown in this image released Thursday May 6, 2004 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. At its center lies a superhot, dying star smothered in a blanket of hailstones. The new Hubble image reveals fresh detail in the wings of this cosmic butterfly. (AP Photo/NASA - HST) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(16 of25)
EMBARGOED: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE 1900GMT WEDNESDAY FEB. 16 2005: This undated photo made available in London Wednesday Feb. 16, 2005, was taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope of the planet Mars. Vittorio Formisano, of the Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Science in Rome, claims there is a lot more methane on Mars than previously thought which leads him to believe there must be life on the Red Planet.(AP Photo/NASA Hubble Space Telescope, ho) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(17 of25)
This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori's cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. In three dimensions, LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge. The beautiful picture is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation. Editorial Use Only. Hand Out Photo by NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team/ABACAPRESS.COM (credit:ABACA/ABACA)
(18 of25)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope photographs the Horsehead Nebula (credit:NASA)
(19 of25)
387524 01: New pictures from the Hubble telescope, made available April 5, 2001 are giving astronomers a detailed view of the Whirlpool galaxy's spiral arms and dust clouds, which are the birth sites of massive and luminous stars. This galaxy, also called M51 or NGC 5194, is having a close encounter with a nearby companion galaxy, NGC 5195, just off the upper edge of this image. The companion's gravitational influence is triggering star formation in the Whirlpool, as seen by the numerous clusters of bright, young stars [highlighted in red]. (Photo courtesy NASA/The Hubble Heritage Team/Newsmakers)
(20 of25)
This photograph of the coil-shaped Helix Nebula, released Friday May 9, 2003, is one of the largest and most detailed celestial images ever made. The composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz. The image shows a fine web of filamentary "bicycle-spoke" features embedded in the colorful red and blue ring of gas. At 650 light-years away, the Helix is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth. A planetary nebula is the glowing gas around a dying, Sun-like star. (AP Photo/NASA) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(21 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows M106 with additional information captured by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Gendler combined Hubble data with his own observations to produce this color image. It is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA/ ESA/ Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), R. Gendler via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(22 of25)
An aging star's last hurrah is creating a flurry of glowing knots of gas that appear to be streaking through space in this close-up image of the Dumbbell Nebula, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope which was released Tuesday Feb. 10, 2003. The Dumbbell, a nearby planetary nebula residing more than 1,200 light-years away, is the result of an old star that has shed its outer layers in a glowing display of color. The Hubble images of the Dumbbell show many knots, but their shapes vary. Some look likefingers pointing at the central star, located just off the upper left of the image; others are isolated clouds, with or without tails. Their sizes typically range from 11 - 35 billion miles (17 - 56 billion kilometers), which is several times larger than the distance from the Sun to Pluto. Each contains as much mass as three Earths. This image, created by the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI), was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The filters used to create this color image show oxygen in blue, hydrogen in green and a combination of sulfur and nitrogen emission in red. (AP Photo/NASA) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(23 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxy UGC 10214 with the long streamer of stars. Its distorted shape was caused by another galaxy passing nearby. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (NASA, Holland Ford (JHU), ACS Science Team, ESA via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(24 of25)
This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, known as the Antennae Galaxies. Once normal, sedate spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, the two have spent the past few hundred million years intertwining with one another. Far-flung stars and streamers of gas stretch out into space, creating long tidal tails reminiscent of antennae. They are expected to eventually form one large elliptical galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope marks its 25th anniversary. A full decade in the making, Hubble rocketed into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard space shuttle Discovery. (ESA/Hubble,NASA via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(25 of25)
This image provided by NASA is a Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of Saturn's disk captures the transit of several moons across the face of the gas giant planet. The giant orange moon Titan â larger than the planet Mercury â can be seen at upper right. The white icy moons close to the ring plane are, from left,Enceladus, Dione, and Mimas, at right edge of the plaent. The dark band running across the face of the planet slightly above the rings is the shadow of the rings cast on the planet. The dark dots as the shadows cast by Enceladus and Dione. (AP Photo/NASA) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)