Hubble Space Telescope - 30th Anniversary Celebration

On April 24, 2020, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope celebrated the 30th anniversary of its launch aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery with the release of a stunning new Hubble image! The Science Outreach Center at Saint Francis University is pleased to have been selected as one of a limited number of locations across the nation to unveil the anniversary photo to the public. While were we unable to celebrate in person, we were able to wish Hubble a happy birthday virtually by enjoying this new image, titled “Cosmic Reef,” pictured above.

These national unveilings were the brainchild of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, home to Hubble’s science operations center. In late 2019 STScI put out a call for applications from museums, science centers, and other organizations interested in hosting an event to display Hubble’s 30th anniversary image. After a rigorous selection process, 74 organizations were chosen to host a public unveiling, including at least one location in all 50 states. 

Due to limits on social gatherings, rather than a celebration only on the actual anniversary date of April 24, many venues shifted to an ongoing celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s amazing 30 years (and counting!) of scientific discovery, with their events occurring on different dates.

Events:
Fall 2020 - Banner viewable in the Science Center atrium
October 2020 - Science Café: Cosmic Cocktails presentation on Facebook: Spooky Images from Hubble
November 2020 - STEAM Day presentations
December 2020 - Science Café: Cosmic Cocktails presentation on Facebook: Discover the Universe with Hubble
Check back for additional events!

Visit HubbleSite for news, images, video, learning resources and more:  https://hubblesite.org/hubble-30th-anniversary!

Hubble Banner (pictured above) inside the Science Center at SFU

About the image: In the Hubble portrait, the giant red nebula (NGC 2014) and its smaller blue neighbor (NGC 2020) are part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 163,000 light-years away. The image is nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef," because NGC 2014 resembles part of a coral reef floating in a vast sea of stars.

Some of the stars in NGC 2014 are monsters. The nebula's sparkling centerpiece is a grouping of bright, hefty stars, each 10 to 20 times more massive than our Sun. The seemingly isolated blue nebula at lower left (NGC 2020) has been created by a solitary mammoth star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun. The blue gas was ejected by the star through a series of eruptive events during which it lost part of its outer envelope of material.

Learn More: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/…/news-2020-16 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STSci