Happy Birthday Hubble Space Telescope! 🎂
It’s 30 years ago that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched!
Launched into low Earth orbit on 24th April 1990 on Space Shuttle Discovery (during the STS-31 mission), HST remains in operation and is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Hubble is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. Five Space Shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments. The fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster (2003), but NASA administrator approved the fifth servicing mission which was completed in 2009.
The telescope is operating as of 2020, and could last until 2030–2040. Its successor the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to be launched in March 2021.
After a few years of problems and issues, notably the flawed mirror, Hubble started capturing amazing images. A selection of some of the most impressive can be found below.
Astronomers combined several Hubble exposures to assemble the wider view. The towering pillars are about 5 light-years tall. The dark, finger-like feature at bottom right may be a smaller version of the giant pillars 
Sideways oriented galaxy (NGC 3717), located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Serpent). 
Planetary nebula (NGC 5307), which lies about 10000 light years from Earth. It can be seen in the constellation Centaurus (The Centaur), which can be seen primarily in the southern hemisphere. 
The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 
The Hubble Deep Field image covers a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime 75 feet away. The field is a very small sample of the heavens but it is considered representative of the typical distribution of galaxies in space. In this small field, Hubble uncovered a bewildering assortment of at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of evolution. 
Mars, the red planet, near ‘opposition’ in 2001 
