Eye in the sky turns 25

With more than 1 million observations, including those of the farthest and oldest galaxies ever beholden by humanity, no man-made satellite has touched as many minds or hearts as the Hubble Space Telescope.

In this April 25, 1990 photograph provided by NASA, most of the giant Hubble Space Telescope can be seen as it is suspended in space by Discovery's Remote Manipulator System following the deployment of part of its solar panels and antennae. Photo: NASA/AP

Astronauts Steven L. Smith and John M. Grunsfeld are photographed during an extravehicular activity during the December 1999 Hubble servicing mission. The Hubble Space Telescope, one of NASA'S crowning glories, turns 25 on April 24, 2015. Photo: NASA/JSC/AP

This Hubble image shows the Eagle Nebula’s “Pillars of Creation”. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

Image shows a group of five galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

Nearly 10,000 galaxies in the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos, cutting across billions of light-years. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

This January 2005 image shows the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and a companion galaxy. The Whirlpool's two curving arms are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

The tip of the three-light-year-long pillar in a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away from the Earth. Composed of gas and dust, the structure is illuminated by light from hot, massive stars off the top of the image. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

The M106 galaxy with additional information captured by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Mr. Gendler combined Hubble data with his own observations to produce this colour image. It is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light-years away. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

A tower of cold gas and dust rises from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

The Orion Nebula and the proceess of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

A full view of the Crab Nebula. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

The tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A. It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae. In 1994, Hubble first revealed the nebula's surprisingly intricate structures, including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas, and unusual shock-induced knots of gas. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

A false-colour image of the Carina Nebula. Outflowing winds and intense ultraviolet radiation from the large stars shape the material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP

The star cluster Pismis 24 in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357. Part of the nebula is ionised by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars emitting intense ultraviolet radiation, heating the gas surrounding the cluster and creating a bubble in NGC 6357.

The Abell 1703, which is composed of over a hundred different galaxies whose collective mass acts as a gravitational lens. The massive galaxy cluster in the foreground (yellow mostly elliptical galaxies scattered across the image) bends the light rays of galaxies behind it in a way that can stretch their images into multiple arcs. Abell 1703 is located at 3 billion light-years from the Earth. Photo: NASA/ESA/AP