With a captivating new photo, the "Cosmic Reef," NASA's Hubble Space Telescope showcases the instruments' incredible capabilities on its 30th anniversary.
Thirty years ago today (April 24), Hubble launched into space on a mission to open humanity's eyes to the wonders of the cosmos. In a new Hubble image released today, the telescope captured two neighboring clouds of cosmic dust and gas: the giant red nebula NGC 2014 and a smaller blue nebula nearby called NGC 2020.
Hubble scientists named the image "Cosmic Reef," because the sparkling, brilliant structures resemble a cosmic coral reef glistening in some secret corner of a deep ocean. This image was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to mark the telescope's 30 years in space.
"This image is amazing, it's really showing how powerful Hubble is," Elena Sabbi, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, told Space.com. "Today, it has the sharpest eyes it's ever had."
