BEIJING, April 26 -- 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. (NASA)

    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.

    The other image shows the Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as the spiral galaxy M51. It shows the galaxy's classic features, including its curving arms where newborn stars reside, and its yellowish core, which is home to older stars.

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as the spiral galaxy M51

    The images were taken with Hubble's newest camera. The resolution is so high that the images could be enlarged to billboard size without any loss of detail.

    The new images are among the largest and sharpest Hubble has ever captured while the instrument, launched on April 24, 1990 and have orbited the Earth more than 88,000 times, has taken more than 750,00 images of planets, stars, galaxies, and the interstellar clouds of dust and gas known as nebulae in its 15 years.

    While Hubble's future is uncertain, its capabilities are unquestioned as the sharp-eyed observatory continues to produce stunning photographs of faraway places.

    "Hubble has done something that I believe it's fair to say no other scientific experiment before it had ever done: It has literally brought the wonders of the universe into the homes of many millions across the globe," said a senior astrophysicist.

    Hubble's successor will be the James Webb space telescope, which is scheduled for launch in August 2011.

(Agencies)