New view of dusty spires marks Hubble's 20th birthday
The Hubble Space Telescope passed its 20th anniversary of reaching orbit on April 24, an occasion marked with the release of a new image from the venerable observatory, depicting a star-forming region of the Milky Way some 7,500 light-years away called the Carina Nebula.
NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
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The Hubble Space Telescope passed its 20th anniversary of reaching orbit on April 24, an occasion marked with the release of a new image from the venerable observatory, depicting a star-forming region of the Milky Way some 7,500 light-years away called the Carina Nebula.
The pillars in Hubble's new image, which was captured by the telescope in February, are dusty plumes of gas undergoing erosion from the radiation and stellar winds of young, nearby stars. According to a NASA press release, the main pillar is three light-years high, although this photograph depicts only its top segment.
The new release recalls Hubble's famous 1995 image, known as "The Pillars of Creation," showing similar features in the Eagle Nebula. But whereas that image came from Hubble's old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), the photograph of the Carina spires was produced by the more advanced Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Spacewalking astronauts swapped in WFC3 for its aging predecessor during the final scheduled servicing mission to Hubble in May 2009.
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