Hubble space telescope:

25 years photographing the galaxies far, far away

This month Nasa/ESA's Hubble space telescope is celebrating 25 years exploring the sky above us, enabling the humble habitants of planet Earth to

understand at least some of the many secrets of the universe. Here's our selection of Hubble's most

impressive images over the years.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched April 24, 1990, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida,

aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

NASA calls Hubble the "most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's

telescope." Hubble has given us new, better views of our solar system and has taken us

hundreds of light years away to the edge of the universe.

The IMAX Cargo Bay Camera view of the Hubble Space Telescope (right) at the moment of release from Space Shuttle Discovcery during the STS-31 mission. Credit: NASA

This still photo image taken May 13, 2009 and made available May 14, 2009 shows the Hubble Space Telescope after its' grapple by the space shuttle Atlantis's robot arm. © Ho New / Reuters/REUTERS

An STS-125 crewmember onboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis snapped this still photo on May 13, 2009 of the Hubble Space Telescope © NASA NASA / Reuters/REUTERS

STS-125 mission specialist Michael Good rides Atlantis' remote manipulator system arm to where he needs be while working on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble has given us many images of our neighbor Mars. This image was taken in 2003 when Mars made its closest approach in nearly 60,000 years. On August 27, 2003, the two worlds were only 34.6 million miles apart from center to center. By contrast, Mars can be about 249 million miles away from Earth.

Hubble snapped this image in 2007 of Ganymede appearing to peek out from beneath Jupiter. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and it's even bigger than Mercury.

Hubble captured this image of Saturn in 2004, a view so sharp that some of the planet's smaller rings are visible.

Hubble tracked clouds on Uranus in this image taken in 1997. The image is a composite of three near-infrared images. The planet's rings are prominent in the near infrared. Eight of Uranus' 27 moons can be seen in both images. Uranus is about 1.75 billion miles from Earth.

Hubble captured this image of the distant blue-green world Neptune in 2005. Fourteen different colored filters were used to help scientists learn more about Neptune's atmosphere. Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles from Earth.

Hubble discovered four of Pluto's five moons. In 2005: Nix and Hydra were found. Hubble discovered Kerberos in 2011 and Styx in 2012. The new discoveries joined Pluto's large moon, Charon, which was discovered in 1978. Styx was found by scientists using Hubble to search for potential hazards for the New Horizons spacecraft which will fly by Pluto in July 2015. Pluto is about 2.9 billion miles from Earth.

The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light years from Earth located in Orion's Belt in the constellation Orion. It's one of the brightest nebulae and on a clear, dark night -- it's visible to the naked eye. The nebula is Earth's nearest star-forming region.

The iconic Horsehead Nebula is a favorite target for astronomers. Look carefully and you'll see what looks like the head of horse rising into the stars. This Hubble image captures the nebula in infrared wavelengths. The nebula is 1,600 light years from Earth.

The Cat's Eye Nebula is a bunch of glowing gases kicked out into space by a dying star. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows details of structures including jets of high-speed gas and unusual knots of gas. This color picture is a composite of three images taken at different wavelengths. The nebula is estimated to be 1,000 years old. It's about 3,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Draco.

The Bug, or Butterfly Nebula looks like a butterfly with its wings stretching across the galaxy. It's actually a cloud of roiling gas shed by a dying star. Scientists say the gas is more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and is expanding into space at more than 600,000 miles an hour. This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, a camera installed on Hubble during its May 2009 upgrade by shuttle astronauts. The nebula is about 3,800 light years away in the constellation Scorpius.

Astronomers combined several Hubble images taken in 2014 to create an upgraded view of the Hubble's iconic 1995 "Pillars of Creation" image. The new image shows a wider view of the pillars, which stretch about 5 light-years high. The pillars are part of a small region of the Eagle Nebula, which is about 6,500 light years from Earth.

This huge nebula is 7,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Carina. It's one of the largest and brightest nebulas and is a nursery for new stars. It also has several stars estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun, including Eta Carinae, one of the brightest stars known and one of the most massive stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

One of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, can be seen with the naked eye if you know where to look on a clear, dark night. In 2012, scientists using data from Hubble predicted Andromeda would collide with the Milky Way in about four billion years. Andromeda is 2.5 million light years from Earth.

The Cigar Galaxy is 12 million light years away. It gets its name from its shape: From Earth it looks like an elongated elliptical disc.

It's called one of the most photogenic galaxies: The Sombrero Galaxy looks like the giant broad rim of a Mexican hat sitting out among the stars. It can be spotted using a small telescope. It's about 28 million light years from Earth.

This group of galaxies is about 290 million light years from Earth. It's named for its discoverer, French astronomer Edouard Stephan, who first spotted it in 1877.

Hubble captured this image of a group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The bigger galaxy has a center disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the pull from its partner below.

In 2004, astronomers unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever taken to date. Called the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, the million-second-long exposure shows the first galaxies to emerge shortly after the Big Bang. The image shows an estimated 10,000 galaxies. In 2012, astronomers assembled an upgraded image called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field. It combined 10 years of Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. The new image contains about 5,500 galaxies.

The Best Images Taken by Hubble

Cat's Eye Nebula

Galaxy M106

The Crab Nebula

The Hourglass Nebula

The Butterfly Nebula

New Hubble image of NGC 2174

Sharpest ever view of the Andromeda Galaxy

Jupiter's Eye

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300

The Ring Nebula

Carina Nebula

Saturn

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841

Planetary Nebula NGC 5189

Spectacular Hubble view of Centaurus A

spiral galaxy M100

SNR 0509

Southern Pinwheel, M83

Colorful Stars Galore Inside Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri

NGC 3603

Hubble Observes Infant Stars in Nearby Galaxy

Sharpless 2-106 Hubble

A Reflection Nebula in Orion

Pluto

Comet Ison

Pismis 24 Hubble

Nucleus of Galaxy Centaurus A

The Whirlpool Hubble

Abell 370

Double Cluster NGC 1850

Cone Nebula

hs-1998-21-b-full_jpg

Pleiades Hubble

Turquoise-tinted plumes in the Large Magellanic Cloud

30 Doradus Hubble

Hubble's First Observation Of Jupiter

NGC 4603

The Eskimo Nebula NGC 2392 Hubble

The Tadpole Hubble

A ghostly ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster

A new view of the Eagle Nebula

The massive star Eta Carinae in our Milky Way

U Camelopardalis nearing the end of its life located in the constellation of Camelopardalis

Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies

Supernova remnant 0509-67.5, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud

This image shows an evaporating non-solar system planet. That was the first time that an atmosphere of dense hydrogen, warm and large, has been noticed around a non-solar system planet.Picture: EPA/NASA/ESA/Hubble

Star V838 Monocerotis's (V838 Mon) light echo, which is about six light years in diameter, is seen from the Hubble Space Telescope in this February 2004 handout photo released by NASA on December 4, 2011. Light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of Monoceros the unicorn. It became the brightest star in the Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002 when its outer surface greatly expanded suddenly.Picture: REUTERS/ NASA, ESA, H. E. Bond

In the centre of this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 and it seems to be smiling. You can make out its two orange eyes and white button nose. In the case of this happy face , the two eyes are very bright galaxies and the misleading smile lines are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing.Galaxy clusters are the most massive structures in the Universe and exert such a powerful gravitational pull that they warp the spacetime around them and act as cosmic lenses which can magnify, distort and bend the light behind them. This phenomenon, crucial to many of Hubble s discoveries, can be explained by Einstein s theory of general relativity. In this special case of gravitational lensing, a ring known as an Einstein Ring is produced from this bending of light, a consequence of the exact and symmetrical alignment of the source, lens and observer and resulting in the ring-like structure we see here. Hubble has provided astronomers with the tools to probe these massive galaxies and model their lensing effects, allowing us to peer further into the early Universe than ever before.Picture: NASA/ESA/Hubble

The Most Colorful View of the Universe

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cast Hubble space telescope: 25 years photographing the galaxies far, far away

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