Hubble Snaps New Pics of Star Birth to Celebrate 100,000 Orbits

You may remember where you were when your car's odometer rolled over 100,000 miles. NASA scientists are swelling with the same kind of pride over the Hubble Space Telescope, which has completed its 100,000th orbit of the Earth. NASA celebrated the milestone by taking new pictures of a nearby star nursery, close to the Tarantula Nebula 170,000 light-years away. Ultraviolet radiation blazing from hot, young stars in the cluster has created dramatic ridges and valleys of dust. The intense radiation has also set aglow gaseous filaments and eroded away the dusty cocoons where newborn stars are being born, unveiling the hatchlings at the tops of serpent-shaped pillars [Science News]. The gas cloud, or nebula, itself is cold and dark – the perfect environment for creating new stars. But intense radiation from young stars nearby is eroding the cloud and causing its 'walls' to glow [New Scientist]. The colors in the ...