Carina Nebula

NASA is celebrating the 17th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in April 1990. (Doesn't it seem like just yesterday it turned Sweet 16?) As part of the party, NASA has released several new photos. This one, encompassing a 50-light-year-wide view of the Carina Nebula, was taken during a maelstrom of star birth and death. Composed from 48 images taken with the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the image (click here for expanded view) has been colorized so that red is sulfur, green is hydrogen and blue is oxygen.

The image can also been seen as a farewell tribute to the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which went down in January due to a Hubble short circuit. The camera, which had been the workhorse of the Hubble since 2002, will function in a different capacity once fixed. A newer type of camera already planned for installation, the Wide Field Camera 3, will take its place in most ways.

Text by Candace Lombardi, staff writer, CNET News.com