Happy Birthday Hubble

To celebrate, NASA has released the largest single collection of images from the famous telescope. See all 59 amazing shots inside
By John Mahoney Posted 04.24.2008 at 1:54 pm 2 Comments
Two Wild Galaxies: An image from Hubble's 18th anniversary collection shows two soon-to-collide galaxies in the Draco constellation, 350 million light-years away. Photo by NASA/ESA
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Today marks the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, and to celebrate, NASA has released a collection of 59 new Hubble images (under the fantastic title "Galxies Gone Wild!") that present galaxies in all of their volatile wonder.

We see them colliding, merging, spiraling away—all of the things that crazy galaxies do when they get drunk on spring break exist for billions of years in the universe. Thanks to the decision to keep Hubble aloft for another five years (a Shuttle mission planned for this summer will service the telescope for the final time), we can expect greatness from the world's most famous space telescope well into the next decade.

For all 59 images, launch our gallery here.

All photos and captions are courtesy NASA via hubblesite.org.

2 Comments

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jwright

from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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 04/24/08 at 8:10 pm

These pictures are really amazing when you realize that these small pictures, only centimetres across are full of billions of planets, some with things on them that we might not know exist

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highdobb
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 04/26/08 at 5:57 pm

Happy Birthday Hubble!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best of wishes to you on your 18th! I would say I hope there are many years to come, but I know your time is running out. I hope they at least build a replica for a museum (full size) so I can truly understand the scale of importance you brought to our minds for generations to come... You've taught us so much, even though we know so little-you are an inspiration to the thousands of telescopes that will follow in your footsteps... P.S. Thank you for supplying me with countless desktop backgrounds, they're BEAUTIFUL!!!

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