14 DAY TRIAL // The Hubble Space Telescope is turning 20 today, a venerable age for such an important piece of hardware for modern astronomy. Over the years, it has provided some of the most spectacular and famous images of our galaxy and beyond. Google is one of the geekiest companies out there, so it wouldn’t miss out on an occasion like this. It’s celebrating the event with a doodle, not one of its most spectacular, it has to be said, but also with new imagery available in Google Earth.
“Launched into orbit in 1990, NASA's Hubble Telescope has revolutionized astronomy and inspired a generation with its magnificent views of the universe. To celebrate Hubble's 20th Birthday, we've teamed up with our friends at the Space Telescope Science Institute to share our 20 favorite Hubble images,” the dedicated page on the Google Earth website read.
The homepage doodle stands out as it runs from one side of the page to the other, like all the different logos Google ran during the Winter Olympics. Other than that, though, the graphics are a bit disappointing considering the level of quality the company has gotten us used to.
But the real treats are the Google Earth images that are featured in the new Hubble tour slideshow. You can grab the KMZ file here and open it in Google Earth to enjoy 20 of the most spectacular images Hubble has captured in the last two decades. The tour runs for almost five minutes and goes through the locations complete with snippets of info on them.
In celebration of the anniversary, NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) have released a series of never-before-seen images focusing on a portion of the Carina Nebula. You can read more about that on our Science section. Hubble is scheduled for active duty for at least four more years when the James Webb Space Telescope, labeled as its successor, is scheduled to be launched.
