Hubble Completes 100,000th Orbit, Amazing Photos

Hubble, without a doubt the most spectacular digital camera in the solar system, has completed its 100,000th orbit. To celebrate, scientists pointed the telescope to NGC 2074, a spectacular star birthplace 170,000 light-years away, right next to the Tarantula nebula, where Ming of Mongo is probably building a weapon of mass destruction. Like always, the image—taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2—is breathtaking, especially the high resolution version:   For a project that has been dying for the last few years, this telescope keeps being one of the most successful NASA projects in history. [ NASA ]