Hubble has taken somewhat of a backseat since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began taking its first high resolution images of deep space last month. The first images shared by NASA from the newest space telescope were truly awe inspiring. But the space agency does not want you to forget one of its predecessors, the Hubble telescope, which has been inducing oohs and ahhs with its photos of space since its launch and deployment by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990.
One of the images that enamored viewers seven years ago, was recently shared by NASA on its Instagram feed once again. The image captured a sweeping bird’s-eye view of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), and is the sharpest large composite ever taken of the Milky Way’s neighbor. Even though Andromeda resides over 2 million light-years away, Hubble showed its photographic prowess to resolve individual stars in a 61,000 light-year-long stretch of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disk.
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