This image of the bubble nebula is one of the 30 images NASA uses to celebrate the 30th birthday of its most famous telescope: the Hubble Space Telescope. Since the telescope launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, it has revolutionized our view of the universe.
Before the Hubble space telescope came into existence, our view of the universe was rather incomplete and monotonous: In films or images, the sky mostly only appeared as a dark something with bright spots of light – for example in the TV series “Star Trek” or in the old “War.” the Star Trilogy. Today, on the other hand, the colorful variety of cosmic phenomena shapes our image of the universe: luminous star cradles, bizarrely shaped supernova remains and a whole variety of different galaxies decorate screens, film backgrounds or hang on the wall as posters.
We owe this new view of the cosmos primarily to the Hubble Space Telescope. For 30 years it has been our eye in orbit and one of the most important scientific instruments of our time. More than 13,000 scientific publications are based on his data, the telescope has delivered 1.2 million images since it started into orbit on April 24, 1990.
It was only by looking deeply into the distant regions of the universe that astronomers were able to determine how old the universe is, how fast it is expanding, and where there is dark matter everywhere. But above all, many laypeople are particularly enthusiastic about the space telescope with its colored images of supernova remains, star cradles and cosmic nebulae.
Our picture of the week shows a Hubble image of the NGC 7635 bubble nebula, a so-called emission nebula at a distance of around 7100 light years. It is created by luminous gases that are thrown outwards at high speed by the strong star wind of a young, massive star. Where these gases collide with the surrounding cloud of interstellar molecules, a shock wave is created, which is visible here as a blue ball.