Celestial Photographs Celebrate Hubble Telescope’s 25th Anniversary

Taschen's "Expanded Universe" brings the cosmos to you up close.

July 16, 2015, 9:45pm

NGC 6302 Bug Nebula classification Planetary Nebula position 17h 13m, –37° 06' (Scorpius) distance from earth 3,800 ly. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and Hubble SM4 ERO Team

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope launch into low-orbit in 1990, Taschen published Hubble’s most spectacular images in their latest book Expanding Universe.

The book spans over 260 image-packed pages with astonishing high-resolution photographs taken with almost no background light. Zoltan Levay, imaging team leader at the Space Telescope Science Institute explains how the dreamlike images begin as black and white and with the addition of red, blue, and green filters which block any unwanted light, the images are then transformed into fluorescent photographic masterpieces.

Expanding Universe features an essay from photography critic Owen Edwards and an interview with Levay. Astronauts Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and John M. Grunsfeld also present readers with their insights on the Hubble Telescope and the images its produced thus far.

For more on how these images are created:

RS Puppis classification: Variable Star, Nebula position: 08h 13m, –34°. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and H. Bond (STScI/PSU)

M82 Cigar Galaxy classification: Galaxy position: 09h 55m, +69° 40' (Ursa Major) distance from earth: 12,000,000 ly. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA), J. Gallagher (U. Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), and P. Puxley (NSF)

HCG 92 Stephan’s Quintet classification: Galaxy Group position: 22h 35m, +33° 57' (Pegasus) distance from earth: 290,000,000 ly. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and Hubble SM4 ERO Team

M1 Crab Nebula classification: Supernova Remnant position: 05h 34m, +22° 00' (Taurus) distance from earth: 6,500 ly. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and J. Hester (ASU)