Sunday, April 22, 2012

HST's 22nd Anniversary Photo

Hey Space Placers!

Better late than never in sharing the Hubble Space Telescope's 22nd Anniversary photograph:


HST celebrated 22 years in orbit on April 24th - the day it was launched to space aboard Discovery. Kind of ironic that HST is still operational and the spacecraft that launched the telescope is retired.

The image is of a spectacular star forming region located in the Large Magellanic Cloud called 30 Doradus. The picture is the largest mosaic ever made by HST. 


HST has a few years left before it is retired. The historic instrument will be deorbited and burn up in the atmosphere - wish HST could stay in orbit as a perpetual museum piece in low earth orbit. HST is visible to the unaided eye and it would be there for us to see and reflect on all it has done to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe.

Sky Guy in VA

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