Hubble celebrates 30 years by showing a ‘Cosmic Reef’

The Hubble Space Telescope, an international collaboration of NASA and the European Space Agency, celebrated 30 years of unlocking the beauty and mystery of space on April 24 by unveiling a stunning new portrait of a “Cosmic Reef.”

Astronomical image of nebulas with holes (NASA/ESA/STScI)
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows how young, energetic, massive stars illuminate and sculpt their birthplaces with powerful winds and searing ultraviolet radiation. (NASA/ESA/STScI)

The image is nicknamed “Cosmic Reef,” because it resembles an undersea world, but it’s actually a firestorm of star birth in a nearby galaxy, NASA said.

The red nebula and its blue neighbor are part of a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, according to NASA.

The telescope is named after U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble.