NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Just Captured Breathtaking Images of the Egg Nebula

In yet another massive and breathtaking achievement of science and technology, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that its Hubble Space Telescope has captured even more stunning images of the universe.

Less than two weeks after the Hubble Space Telescope revealed fascinating images of an "uncommon" lenticular galaxy, it has given scientists clear images of the Egg Nebula, which is located nearly 1,000 light-years away. Science is truly awesome.

Why is this achievement so notable, and why are fans everywhere applauding the latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope? And for that matter, where is the Hubble Space Telescope actually located?

Buckle in for safety as we once again explore the universe and appreciate the remarkable capacity of the Hubble Space Telescope and its awe-inspiring discoveries.

According to news on Feb. 12 from the NASA Hubble Mission Team at the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured what is being hailed as "the clearest view yet" of the Egg Nebula. The image was released on Feb. 10, and it "reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust."

Per NASA, the Egg Nebula is located roughly 1,000 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation. (The "Egg" portion of the name comes from "a central star obscured by a dense cloud of dust — like a 'yolk' nestled within a dark, opaque 'egg white.'")

NASA is also hailing the Egg Nebula as the "first, youngest, and closest pre-planetary nebula ever discovered," and this stage is said to last only a few thousand years. Scientists, therefore, are quite excited to study the image and the Egg Nebula.

This is not the first time that the Hubble Space Telescope has observed the Egg Nebula, per NASA. Its first visible-light image was captured by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on May 12, 1997.

Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys released a second image of the Egg Nebula on April 3, 2003. Then, Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 captured yet another image that was released on April 27, 2012.

According to NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope is a result of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit, meaning it’s a satellite orbiting less than 1,200 miles from the Earth's surface.

For reference, "Hubble is currently located 326 miles above Earth's surface. If you could drive straight up, you could reach it in about the same time it would take you to drive from Baltimore, Maryland to Boston, Massachusetts."

As for the Hubble Space Telescope's operations and logistics, per the NASA website, "NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA."