Two new images of cosmic phenomena have been released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 15th birthday.

　　A new photo from Hubble shows the Eagle Nebula. (Photo)

　　Hubble scientists released April 24 fresh images of the Eagle Nebula and the Whirlpool Galaxy, two of the most famous objects previously photographed by Hubble.

　　The image on the left is of the Eagle Nebula, a tall, dense tower of gas sculpted by ultraviolet light from a group of massive, hot stars. About 9.5 light-years high - twice the distance from the Sun to our nearest star - the tower may be a stellar nursery. It is 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens (the Snake).

　　Its colours were produced by gas energised by the star cluster’s ultraviolet light. The blue is from glowing oxygen and the red is from glowing hydrogen.