NASA marks 34th anniversary of Hubble Space Telescope by unveiling stunning images of Dumbbell Nebula

The legendary Hubble Space Telescope, known for producing stunning images of the cosmos, has completed 34 years in orbit.

Hubble Space Telescope has helped scientists prove that our universe is 13.7 billion years old and that many galaxies host humongous black holes at their centres.

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The spaceborne eye also helped scientists map the mysterious substance dark matter in 3D. NASA's Hubble Mission team stated, "Most of Hubble's discoveries were not anticipatedbefore launch. The space telescope is the most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in NASA history. The demand for using Hubble is so high it iscurrently oversubscribed by a factor of six-to-one."

On the 34th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers revealed a fresh picture of the Dumbbell Nebula or M76, Space.com reported. It is a two-lobed, expanding shell of gas shed by a dying star at the centre.

M76 resembles "a balloonthat's beenpinched around a middle waist." It's located 3,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. Moreover, a glowing ring of gas and dust ejected by the central star when it runs out of fuel borders it.

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The star's temperature exceeds 130,000 degrees Celsius (250,000 degrees Fahrenheit), making it one of the hottest known stellar remnants. It is roughly 24 times the temperature of our Sun's surface.

The Hubble image shows the outer layers form a dumbbell-shaped ring around the star, which hosts a myriad of dense knots of gas and dust ranging from 17 billion kilometres to 56 billion kilometres. Each knot has as much mass as three whole Earths.

While there's a chance that the binary star might have shaped the ring, the companion star isn't visible in the Hubble images. A theory by NASA suggests that the central star might've consumed the shredded invisible star.

However, despite being classified as a "planetary nebula," the M76 has no association with any known planets.

The Hubble Space Telescope is right above Earth's atmosphere, orbiting our planet roughly 320 miles (515 km) above the ground. However, NASA has boosted the telescope into slightly higher orbits several times to keep it from gradually being dragged into the Earth's atmosphere.

According to NASA, the telescope will operate until at least the late 2020s. The agency plans to attach a propulsion module to the telescope, enabling a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean or elevate it into a higher orbit to keep it above during the next decade.

(With inputs from agencies)