Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Stunning Images of Star Factory

Over nearly a quarter of a century, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has captured thousands of awe-inspiring images. This week as Hubble celebrates its 24th anniversary, the team at NASA has directed the HST to take some breath-taking images from an area of space where stars are born.

Seen with Hubble’s infrared-light cameras this image of a stellar nursery is some 6,400 light-years away. In the images we can see a shadowy, dense knot of gas and dust sharply contrasted against a backdrop of brilliant glowing gas in the Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174).



In this region of space, we can watch as massive newborn stars near the center of the nebula are blasting away at dust within the nebula. The giant pillars seen in the image are actually being shaped by the ultraviolet light emitted by these newborns.

How can light share gas and dust particles in a Nebula? As most of the gas in the nebula is hydrogen, the ultraviolet radiation ionizes the gas. Then, the ultraviolet light warms the dust particles, and as they heat up, they begin to glow at infrared wavelengths.

Hubble has been a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency and is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. As impressive as these images from Hubble are, they will soon be surpassed when the James Webb Space Telescope takes flight in the near future.

To view all of the incredible images from Hubble, simply go online to: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble