1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,000 After a quarter of a century in space, 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Hubble has captured a dramatic new cosmic landscape to take centre stage as the 25th anniversary image. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000 A new addition to Hubble’s iconic collection of stunning images of the Universe. 4 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Episode 84: A starry snapshot for Hubble's 25th 5 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Each year, one of Hubble’s best images is used to celebrate the anniversary of the telescope’s launch date: 6 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000 24th of April 1990. 7 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Many of these yearly snapshots have been truly spectacular. 8 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,000 Take the telescope’s 8th anniversary offering, a technicolour image of Saturn. 9 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Or this Tolkien-esque view of the Carina Nebula to celebrate 20 years. 10 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,000 The much more delicate galactic rose in the year that followed. 11 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,000 And Hubble’s image of the star-speckled Tarantula Nebula, released in 2012. 12 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:31,000 Hubble sometimes revisits particularly popular targets, like the Horsehead Nebula, for example. 13 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:39,000 In 2001, Hubble released this murky view of the celestial cloud to celebrate eleven years of operation. 14 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Some 12 years later, a new infrared view of this nebula commemorated the 23-year milestone. 15 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:53,000 This image shows a more fragile structure, with delicate wisps of pink-hued gas. 16 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,000 This year, museums, science centres, planetariums and other science institutes across Europe 17 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000 have taken part in a simultaneous unveiling of the 25th anniversary image: 18 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,000 The dazzling Westerlund 2! 19 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Westerlund 2 is a young open cluster — 20 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 a rich collection of dazzling young stars loosely bound together. 21 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:43,000 It is located around 26 000 light-years away from us, near a giant cloud of gas and dust known as RCW 49. 22 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,000 But this is not just any star cluster; it contains some real stellar heavyweights. 23 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:56,000 Some of its residents are among the brightest, hottest, and most massive stars ever discovered. 24 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:13,000 The stars in the cluster are so energetic that their fierce stellar winds have stripped away a lot of the dust in the surrounding region, 25 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:18,000 and ionised vast swathes of the gas in RCW 49. 26 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:26,000 This activity is responsible for the weird and wonderful shapes and colours of the clouds of gas and dust in the new image. 27 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 A stunning cosmic landscape fit to pay homage to 25 years of our favourite space telescope. 28 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 We look forward to many more anniversary images yet to come! 29 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,000 Hubblecast is produced by ESA/Hubble at the European Southern Observatory.