April 24, 2007—The wonders of astronomy meet the drama of modern art in this latest image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The color-enhanced image, taken of the distant Carina Nebula, depicts the birth pangs of a dozen stars, as explosions send waves of superheated gases billowing through the southern constellation Carina.

The raucous stellar nursery makes a particularly fitting subject—scientists released the image today in honor of Hubble's anniversary, marking 17 years since the orbiting telescope was borne into space on the shuttle Discovery.

This painterly picture brings the total number of images that Hubble has taken since 1990 to nearly 500,000.

(See a photo gallery of Hubble's top ten discoveries.)

To date, the telescope has made nearly 800,000 observations of more than 25,000 celestial objects and has traveled 2.4 billion miles (3.8 billion kilometers)—the equivalent of flying to Saturn and back.

But scientists are also casting an eye toward Hubble's inevitable end.

NASA officials finalized plans today for the telescope's last round of repairs, scheduled for September 2008. Shuttle astronauts are expected to install two new instruments and provide enough new materials to keep Hubble operating through 2013, when Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is slated to launch.

—Blake de Pastino

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