Eye In Space: Celebrate The 21st Birthday Of The Hubble Space Telescope With Images

If the Cosmos is the place of all things beautiful and unusual, the Hubble Space telescope (known simply as ‘Hubble’ or HST) is the ultimate eye to see it with. Launched on 20th April, 1990, aboard the Discovery space shuttle by NASA, as the best of the space-based optical telescopes, Hubble has reached out to all.

Hubble’s images have filled the hard disks of active researchers and eager school students alike, and these have endeared the large floating eye in space to millions worldwide. It has captured stunning, but violent galaxy collisions, seen never-before seen nebular formations, glimpsed the merging of galactic black holes and captured the awe-inspiring and data rich alleys of star-forming nurseries, all the while enthralling us and challenging our own perception of the vastness of the universe. In fact, the word ‘Hubble’ today bears more resonance with the telescope rather than the famed astronomer, Edwin Hubble, after whom it is named.

Hubble also happens to be the only telescope that was serviced by astronauts in space. When Hubble started acquiring images, a flaw was found in the positioning of the main mirror. A collective sigh and gasp throughout the astronomy fraternity around the world was followed by a daring and successful mission by NASA technicians, which involved them going into space and correcting the incorrect alignment of the main mirror. Hubble has never looked back since.

Enjoy the brilliant images below (they may take a second to load). Don’t forget to wish a very Happy Birthday to Hubble. To get more, click here.
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