The Hubble Space Telescope, which in 2015 completes 25 years in orbit, has gathered dramatic new views of two well-known celestial objects.
Revisiting one of its earliest and most famous photos, a new view of the Eagle Nebula shows its “Pillars of Creation” in more detail than ever before.
And a composite of 13,000 shots of our neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy becomes the telescope’s biggest ever image.
The original 1995 view of the star-forming pillars of billowing dust and gas was a sensation, and has since appeared on countless book covers, movie screens and T-shirts.
The new representation, thanks to multiple upgrades to Hubble’s systems, has a wider angle and twice the resolution.
Being 7,000 light-years away, we see the pillars as they were. If you could go there instantly now, they would have changed beyond recognition, even disappeared.
