Hubble Space Telescope Marks Picture-Perfect Milestone With Carina Nebula Image

(April 23) -- What better way to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 20th anniversary than to gaze in wonder at its latest mind-blowing image?

In the two decades since its launch on April 24, 1990, the Hubble telescope has advanced scientific knowledge of the universe by leaps and bounds. And it isn't done yet, as NASA proved with today's release of the telescope's newest picture.

Touted as a "20th anniversary image of the Carina Nebula in the sky," the photo shows what NASA described as a "tower of cool hydrogen and dust" measuring 3 light-years tall, where a number of young stars are being born.

NASA

In celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 20th year in space, NASA released a new photo of the Carina Nebula taken with it.

"Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar," NASA said on its website, "causing new stars to form within it."

The image was first observed by the telescope on Feb. 1, NASA said, but required time to be processed. It shows only a small portion of the massive Carina Nebula, a region located 7,500 light-years away which the space agency said is known to be a prime location for star creation.

Since first casting its eye on the universe, the Hubble has observed more than 30,000 targets and snapped more than a half-million pictures. Its discoveries are staggering: from providing proof of dark matter to spotting more than 400 previously unknown planets to recording the deepest images of the universe ever glimpsed.

Thanks to repairs and upgrades made over the telescope's lifespan, the Hubble is now 100 times more powerful than when it first began its stargazing mission.

"Hubble has revealed secrets of the universe that humans had only been able to probe in their imaginations through much of recorded history," Ray Villard, lead researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute, wrote for Discovery. "Hubble has carried us on a space odyssey of discovery to distant places and times unreachable by physical travel across space."

With newer, more powerful space-based telescopes slated for launch in the next few years, the Hubble era may be coming to a close. But until its successors prove themselves in orbit, it will remain the gold standard of telescopes.