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NASA unveils 30 new Hubble telescope space pictures of cosmic wonders

NASA continues to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 30th anniversary with fresh views of celestial marvels.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
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Spiral galaxy NGC 5248 is listed as Caldwell 45 in the catalog. The freshly processed Hubble image shows off its stunning form.

NASA, ESA, J. Lee (California Institute of Technology), and A. Filippenko (University of California – Berkeley); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

The Hubble Space Telescope has been a science juggernaut since it launched in 1990, but it's also given us an eye-opening (as well as mind- and heart-opening) window on the universe. 

NASA is still busy celebrating the telescope's longevity, and the latest round of confetti is 30 fresh image additions covered by the Caldwell catalog. The catalog is a list of space objects that can be spotted by amateur astronomers.

The new images cover sparkling star clusters, ghostly nebulae and glorious galaxies.

"These images have been taken by Hubble throughout its career and used for scientific research or for engineering tests, but NASA had not fully processed the images for public release until now," the space agency said in a statement on Friday.

Check out these fresh Hubble space stunners. 

NASA unveils 30 dazzling new Hubble space images for an epic anniversary

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The telescope is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency.   

There are 109 objects in the Caldwell catalog and Hubble has now collected images of 87 of them. You can explore the catalog for tips on spotting them for yourself.