Hubble Space Telescope Turns 17

[onedomino]

At the end of April the Hubble Space Telescope turned 17 years old. In honor of the event it gave the World this beautiful present:

In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth - and death - is taking place.

Hubble's view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.

The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are roughly estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique and opulent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, at far left. Eta Carinae (see Hubble photo of this star below) is in the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two billowing lobes of gas and dust that presage its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/news/17_anniversary.html

 

[Diuretic]

17 amazing years - congratulations to anyone involved with this wonderful project.

 

[onedomino]

My favorite Hubble image: The Pillars of Creation: