POPSUGAR

Thank the Hubble Telescope For This Jaw-Dropping Space GIF

Jan 27 2016 - 11:45am

The Hubble Space Telescope celebrated 25 years of documenting the beauty of our universe in 2015 — and to commemorate the occasion, NASA released a stunning image captured by the telescope. "This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science," said NASA in a statement [1].

What you see is an enormous cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2. It gets its name from Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund, who discovered it in the 1960s. "The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina," the statement said.

NASA also uploaded a 3D video of the star cluster that's too gorgeous not to see. We turned it into the GIF above.

Want even more beautiful images captured by the Hubble? Check out these pictures [2] that you will want to make your desktop wallpaper.


Source URL
https://www.popsugar.com/tech/GIF-Space-Hubble-Telescope-37340617