NASA marks Hubble’s 33rd anniversary with detailed star-formation image
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April 20 (UPI) — NASA astronomers marked 33 years since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope Thursday by releasing a high-quality image of the NGC 1333 star-forming region.
“Hubble’s colorful view showcased through its unique capability to obtain images from ultraviolet to near-infrared light unveils an effervescent cauldron of glowing gasses and pitch-black dust stirred up and blown around by several hundred newly forming stars embedded within the dark cloud,” NASA said in a press release.
Star-forming regions like NGC 1333 feature gigantic clouds of molecular hydrogen and dust that clump together under the force of gravity to form stars.
Bright blue stars can be seen in the image of the star formation region, which NASA believes creates the stellar winds that blow through NGC 1333’s dust clouds.
Bright streaks captured on the image are caused by thin jets of energy shooting out of new stars out of frame.
The image not only offers a peek into space but also back in time, because the light reaching Hubble from NGC 1333, which is approximately 960 light-years from Earth, is hundreds of years old.
NASA also believes the image provides a glimpse at what the formation of our sun might have looked like.
“This view offers an example of the time when our sun and planets formed inside such a dusty molecular cloud, 4.6 billion years ago,” NASA said. “Our sun didn’t form in isolation but was instead embedded inside a mosh pit of frantic stellar birth, perhaps even more energetic and massive than MGC 1333.”
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and underwent repairs by Shuttle crews when NASA discovered that part of the Telescope was defective.
According to NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope has made 1.6 million observations during its lifespan so far.