A blue variable star in the galaxy at the base of the ship, taken to celebrate Hubble’s 31st birthday.
The Hubble Telescope (Hubble) just turned 31 years old. NASA pointed it at a beautiful star and took a picture of it called “celebrity star” to mark the occasion.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, and has been in space for 31 years. Most of this data is archived on the HubbleSite.org website and shared with the world.
A few days ago, NASA pointed the Hubble Telescope at one of the brightest stars in our galaxy, AG Carinae (the base of the ship). Located in the base of the ship, about 20,000 light-years from Earth and one million times brighter than the Sun, it is a blue variable star, i.e., a star that shows periodic variations in brightness.
This star maintains a balance of internal and external pressures at all times. Its internal radiation pressure pushes outward, while the gravitational force compresses inward. The two forces are constantly fighting against each other, causing these stars to bulge and shrink at one time. From Earth, their brightness appears to vary periodically.
These blue variable stars are rare, and only 50 have been found so far in what scientists have defined as the “Local Group” of galaxies. The Local Group is a group of galaxies, including the Milky Way, covering a region of about 10 million light years in diameter. The exact number of galaxies contained in it is not known, but at least 80 are now known, most of them dwarf galaxies.
The lifetime of blue variable stars is very short compared to other stars. Our Sun is 4.5 billion years old and is still only in its middle age. The life cycle of these blue variable stars is only about a few million years. They remain quiet throughout their lives and eventually explode into what we see now.
The NASA press release says, “Such outbursts are a typical phase in the life cycle of rare blue variable stars. Such stars are exceptionally bright, but have a short life cycle, dying very young and exploding.” It seems fitting that NASA named it “Star”.
The base of the ship AG exploded about 10,000 years ago, and the gas and dust began to spread out in all directions, forming the beautiful halo seen in the photos today.
NASA says its halo is about 5 light-years in diameter, the same distance from the sun as Proxima Centauri, the nearest star next to the sun. The total amount of material that makes up this beautiful halo is about 10 times the mass of the Sun.
For more than three decades, the Hubble Telescope has been in excellent condition with only a few necessary maintenance visits. In a 2013 report, CBS News said that the Hubble telescope will probably be de-orbited and crashed back to Earth for scrap between 2030 and 2040.
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