The world-famous Hubble Space Telescope completes 20 years in the orbit on April 24th. To honor that, NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute have shared some stunning photographs taken by the Hubble over the period of time. Hubble discoveries are priceless as the images taken by the telescope “assisted nearly all areas of current astronomical research from planetary science to cosmology”. This space observatory was actually launched on April 24, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery during the STS-31 mission. And if you thought space is just a boring black hole, you are obviously wrong.

But the journey wasn’t easy for this massive man-made machine. Over this two decades, “Hubble has suffered broken equipment, a bleary-eyed primary mirror, and the cancellation of a planned shuttle servicing mission. But the ingenuity and dedication of Hubble scientists, engineers and NASA astronauts allowed the observatory to rebound and thrive.”

Some of the mesmerizing photos taken by the telescope…shows the largest seen “star-birth regions in the galaxy“. It is called the Carina Nebula.

All image credit: NASA

[source: nasa.gov]