The NASA This week celebrated the 34th anniversary of the launch of the European Space Agency’s historic Hubble Space Telescope with a hypnotic image.
The scene, captured by astronomers, belongs to the Little Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Messier 76, M76 or NGC 650/651), located about 3,400 light years in the constellation Perseus.
It is a shell of expanding gases that has been ejected by a dying red star. This cosmic object is known as a planetary nebula.
With a rounded shape, they decided to call it that because it had shapes similar to the disks from which planets are formed.
Pierre Méchain was the person who discovered the Little Bell Nebula in 1780 and astronomers were able to observe it in detail for the first time in 1891.
The Hubble telescope turns 34 years old, having photographed some 53,000 astronomical objects and, with it, 1.6 million observations have been carried out.
“Happy 34th launch anniversary, Hubble! To date, the telescope has made more than 1.6 million observations of 53,000 astronomical objects, including this new snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula,” NASA said Wednesday.
