What did NASA’s Hubble Telescope see on your birthday?

NASA launches new search tool for looking at Hubble photographs

The Hubble Space Telescope has been capturing photographs of far-off galaxies since 1990, and now you can look up what images were taken on your birthday.

NASA launched this new search feature sometime last week, according to Gizmodo.

Users can enter the month and day of their birthday, and the search generator will display outer space photographs that were taken on that day.

Besides providing a fascinating glimpse into what our universe looks like beyond our solar system, Hubble’s photographs aid researchers in calculations.

For example, Hubble was able to pinpoint galaxy M81, which was used to measure its distance from our galaxy. Because the universe is ever expanding, this key measurement helped scientists estimate the age of the universe to 13.8 billion years.

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The Hubble Telescope will celebrate its birthday April 24, marking 30 years since its initial launch.

According to the NASA search tool, the Hubble Telescope was snapping photos of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant on its first birthday in 1991. The rainbow light bands in the picture are the aftermath of a massive star explosion 15,000 years ago.

»PHOTOS: The Hubble Telescope's Greatest Hits