Hubble Celebrates 25 Years in Space
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 23 Απρ 2015
Revel in this spectacular commemorative image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, courtesy of HubbleCast.
Hubble
was launched in orbit on 24 April 1990 as the first space telescope of
its kind. For two and a half decades, it has beamed back data and images
that have changed our understanding of the Universe and how it came to
be.
This amazing image of the star cluster Westerlund 2 is a
giant cluster of about 3000 stars. The cluster resides in a raucous
stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away
in the constellation Carina.
The stellar nursery is enshrouded
by dust, but Hubble’s Camera peered through the dusty veil in
near-infrared light, giving us a clear view of its inner workings. The
image resolves the dense concentration of stars in the center, about 10
light-years across.
The cluster is only about two million years
old, but contains some of the brightest, hottest and most massive stars
ever discovered. Some of the heftiest stars are carving deep cavities in
the surrounding material by unleashing torrents of ultraviolet light
and high speed streams of charged particles, known as stellar winds.
These are etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the
stars were born and are responsible for the weird and wonderful shapes
of the clouds of gas and dust in the image.
The pillars in the
image are composed of dense gas and dust, and are resisting erosion from
the fierce radiation and powerful winds. These gaseous monoliths are a
few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. Other dense
regions surround the pillars, including dark filaments of dust and gas.
Hubble
was launched in orbit on 24 April 1990 as the first space telescope of
its kind. For two and a half decades, it has beamed back data and images
that have changed our understanding of the Universe and how it came to
be.
This amazing image of the star cluster Westerlund 2 is a
giant cluster of about 3000 stars. The cluster resides in a raucous
stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away
in the constellation Carina.
The stellar nursery is enshrouded
by dust, but Hubble’s Camera peered through the dusty veil in
near-infrared light, giving us a clear view of its inner workings. The
image resolves the dense concentration of stars in the center, about 10
light-years across.
The cluster is only about two million years
old, but contains some of the brightest, hottest and most massive stars
ever discovered. Some of the heftiest stars are carving deep cavities in
the surrounding material by unleashing torrents of ultraviolet light
and high speed streams of charged particles, known as stellar winds.
These are etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the
stars were born and are responsible for the weird and wonderful shapes
of the clouds of gas and dust in the image.
The pillars in the
image are composed of dense gas and dust, and are resisting erosion from
the fierce radiation and powerful winds. These gaseous monoliths are a
few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. Other dense
regions surround the pillars, including dark filaments of dust and gas.
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