Happy Birthday, Hubble Telescope!

Twenty-five years ago, in the year 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into Earth's orbit. The telescope carries a 2.4 metre mirror (that's as tall as the door of your bedroom) and uses special instruments to measure different kinds of light travelling to Earth from stars all over the Universe.

NASA is celebrating the 25 years since the telescope's launch by releasing some pictures of the Westerlund 2 cluster of stars. It is made up of about 3,000 stars located around 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina.

The Westerlund 2 cluster is about 2 million years old and contains some of our galaxy's hottest, brightest and most enormous stars.

A video showing the path to Westerlund 2 can be found here. A video showing what it might look like inside the cluster can be found here.

NASA and ESA are celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope's silver anniversary of 25 years in space by unveiling some of nature's own fireworks — a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2. The cluster resides inside a vibrant stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina. The comparatively young, 2-million-year-old star cluster contains some of our galaxy's hottest, brightest, and most massive stars. The largest stars are unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet light and hurricane-force winds that etch away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud. This creates a fantasy celestial landscape of pillars, ridges, and valleys.

#space #Hubble #NASA #nebula