History of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

A CLOSER LOOK

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have identified what may be the most luminous star known; a celestial mammoth that releases up to 10-million times the power of the Sun and is big enough to fill the diameter of Earth's orbit. The star unleashes as much energy in six seconds as our Sun does in one year. The image, taken by a UCLA-led team with the recently installed Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the HST, also reveals a bright nebula, created by extremely massive stellar eruptions. The UCLA astronomers estimate that the star, called the Pistol Star, (for the pistol shaped nebula surrounding it), is approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Pistol Star is not visible to the eye, but is locat

Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.