Images, science continue 30 years after Hubble reached orbit

NASA released a photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of a swirling spiral galaxy named NGC 2906.

Using its Wide Field Camera 3, Hubble captured this image during a hunt for fading light from recent stellar explosions called supernovae.

In a press release from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) said the blue speckles in the galaxy are groups of large, young stars. While the stars burn quickly through their fuel, they release hot radiation with a blue tint. 

The orange swaths are a mix of two different stars, the ESA said in the press release. They contain low-mass stars with a cool temperature and older stars that used to be hot, but have cooled down, the ESA said. The lower temperatures cause the starts to release a cooler, reddish tint.

This image of NGC 2906 was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which was installed on Hubble in 2009 during the telescope’s final servicing mission, according to the press release. The modular design of Hubble made servicing the space telescope easier.

Hubble launched into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. It remains in service after 30 years, with period servicing missions that fix focusing problems, replacing gyroscopes, computers and science packages.