10 thrilling Hubble images released by NASA

On April 24, 1990, Space shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The telescope is now marking its 30th anniversary with breathtaking Hubble images, making significant observations and discoveries providing insight into the universe including distant galaxies, star clusters and nebulae.

NASA released newly processed 30 dazzling portraits from the Caldwell catalogue, which are visible through backyard telescopes, binoculars or even unaided eye. The catalogue, compiled by British amateur astronomer Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore and published by Sky & Telescope magazine in December 1995, consists of 46 star clusters, 35 galaxies, and 28 nebulae, or 109 objects in total.

The Caldwell catalogue is an additional list to the Messier catalogue of over 100 cosmic objects compiled by French astronomer Charles Messier during the 18th century. As of August 2020, the Hubble has observed 98 objects in the aforementioned catalogue, processing 87 images of them.

To add more, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA is planning to launch Webb on October 31, 2021.

1- Caldwell 87

Credits: NASA, ESA

“Because of Hubble’s detailed field of view, some of its pictures do not capture the entirety of a Caldwell object, sometimes instead zooming in on clusters of young stars in the arms of a spiral galaxy, stars on the outskirts of a cluster, or the zombie star at the heart of a nebula,” wrote Vanessa Thomas of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“But in other cases, a mosaic of Hubble observations assemble to create a complete or nearly complete portrait of the celestial marvel.”

2- Caldwell 82

Credits: NASA, ESA

3- Caldwell 81

Credits: NASA, ESA

4- Caldwell 83

Credits: NASA, ESA

5- Caldwell 68

Credits: NASA, ESA

6- Caldwell 45

Credits: NASA, ESA

7- Caldwell 51

Credits: NASA, ESA

8- Caldwell 71

Credits: NASA, ESA

9- Caldwell 72

Credits: NASA, ESA

The last Hubble images we selected is Caldwell 89

Credits: NASA, ESA

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