Hubble Drops Spectacular New 'Cosmic Reef' Space Photo On Its 30th Birthday

Apr 24, 2020,07:45am EDT
Jamie Carter Senior Contributor



This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163 000 light-years away. NASA, ESA, AND STSCI

The Hubble Space Telescope has published one of its most beautiful images on the occasion of its 30th birthday—the “Cosmic Reef.”

Launched on April 24, 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery and deployed into low-Earth orbit a day later, the telescope has been a powerful eye on the cosmos ever since.

Each year it takes a special anniversary image.

Today, commemoration of three decades of scientific discoveries, its science team has released an image taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 of one of the most photogenic “star nurseries” of all—the giant nebula NGC 2014 (the “Brain Coral nebula”) and its neighbour NGC 2020 (a future supernova) in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The image is called “Cosmic Reef” because it resembles a coral reef under the sea.

More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/04/24/hubble-drops-spectacular-new-cosmic-reef-space-photo-on-its-30th-birthday/#2482701d5690