Hubble Marks 30 Years in Space and releases picture of Cosmic Reef

News: Hubble Space Telescope captured picture of NGC 2014 and NGC 2020. The picture has been dubbed as Cosmic Reef

Facts:

• Giant red nebula (called NGC 2014) and a smaller blue nebula (called NGC 2020) are part of a star-forming complex located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. 
• The structure is often called the Cosmic Reef because of coral-like appearance.

Hubble Space Telescope

• It is a space-borne observatory and is part of NASA’s “Great Observatories. It was deployed in 1990.
• It was built by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency. It is the largest optical telescope ever launched into space.

Additional Facts:

Nebula:

• It is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. 
• Some nebulae come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. 
• Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form. For this reason, they are also called “star nurseries.

NASA’s series of Great Observatories satellites:

• They are four large, powerful space-based astronomical telescopes.
• The telescopes other than Hubble Space Telescope, are Spitzer Space Telescope, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.