Hubble snaps photo of an eerie part of the universe

NASA's school-bus-sized telescope won't quit.

In what's become a brilliant investment for scientists and taxpayers alike, the Hubble Space Telescope launched into space 35 years ago, and for decades has returned detailed insights into the universe. In recognition of Hubble's longevity, NASA and the European Space Agency have released several new images from the orbiting observatory, including a rich photo of the Rosette Nebula, a sprawling star-forming region of space.

It's a view into a rapidly evolving, extreme cosmic realm.

"The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440)," ESA wrote in a statement. "An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it."

The greater Rosette Nebula is 100 light-years across, but this view zooms into an area some 4 light-years wide (a light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles).

Silhouetted in the foreground are dark, dominant, V-shaped clouds of hydrogen gas. "It looks like thick smoke that has billowed out irregularly, thicker along the line from top left to bottom right, and looser on the piece that goes toward the top right," ESA explained. At the upper right tip of this shadowy feature is a conspicuous red glow, stoked by a star blasting hot gas into the cold dark cloud, which creates shockwaves.

Expansive clouds of illuminated background gas appear in vivid yellow and orange.

A portion of the Rosette Nebula recently viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI

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Some 2,500 stars are located in the greater Rosette Nebula, which is some 5,200 light-years away in our Milky Way galaxy. Nebulae are vital engines in the cosmos, as they host clouds of dust and gas that can amass together, collapse into hot protostars, and form stars — many of which will host their own planets.

Hubble has captured over 1.6 million detailed observations because it orbits 320 miles above Earth, so its observations are not distorted by our planet's thick atmosphere. It also packs a nearly 8-foot-wide mirror, allowing for a high resolution of distant objects like the Rosette Nebula. "Hubble can resolve objects 1,000 times better than the human eye," NASA explained. "That’s enough to see two fireflies separated by about 10 feet (3 meters) from roughly the distance between New York City and Tokyo (about 7,000 miles or 11,000 kilometers)."

Perhaps its most revolutionary image was taken three decades ago, over a period of 10 days, in 1995. The Hubble Deep Field revealed a cornucopia of galaxies, including those not previously possible to see.