The Hubble Space Telescope following its release from the space shuttle Discovery.

The Hubble Space Telescope: The planet's eye into the distant wonders of the universe. Photo: NASA/AP

Astonishing new images from the Hubble Space Telescope have pierced through a nebula of gas and dust 1500 light years from Earth, to reveal a nursery of newborn stars.

The Horsehead Nebula, a vast plume that forms part of the constellation Orion, is a favourite of astronomers because of its distinctive dark shape, which is set against a background of glowing hydrogen gas.

Using infrared cameras, which capture more wavelengths of light than the human eye, the telescope was able to peer within the Horsehead.

New Hubble image showing part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter).

Dust to dust: A New Hubble image of the Horsehead Nebula in the Orion constellation. Photo: NASA/AFP

The nebula, first recorded by astronomers in 1888, is known as a stellar nursery because new stars form there as gases interact with gravity and magnetism.

''In infrared light, we can pierce right through some the bulky plumes of dusty material which usually mask and obscure the inner regions of the horsehead,'' said Joe Liske, astronomer at the European Southern Observatory in Germany.

''The result is this rather fragile-looking structure, made of delicate wispy folds of gas, very different from the nebula's appearance [to the naked eye].''

New images were released to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble's launch. They were taken with a new infrared camera installed by space-walking astronauts in 2009.

Hubble has made more than 1 million observations since its launch in 1990 but it is ageing.

It is to be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to blast into orbit in 2018.

A sharp eye

  • Observations have refined the rate at which the universe is thought to be expanding
  • Recorded the collision of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994
  • Recorded evidence of other planets, and disc-like ''proto planets'', orbiting other stars
  • Showed black holes are probably at the centre of all galaxies
  • Found a fifth moon orbiting Pluto