To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 30th birthday, here are 30 of its most incredible photos

These butterfly-like shapes are actually projections of heated gas escaping from a dead star in nebula NGC 6302.

These light jets, which look a lot like lightsabres, are jets of gas ejected from the poles of a young star.

This globular cluster called Terzan 1 is 20,000 light years away, and is home to some of the oldest stars in our galaxy.

This rose-like galaxy is actually a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273.

Here, Hubble observed the luminous echo of a mysterious erupting star, V838 Mon.

Hubble managed to capture the aurora at one of Jupiter's poles.

Hubble: This is M62, a globular cluster with about 150,000 stars at its centre. At twelve billion years old, it's one of the closest clusters to the center of our galaxy - NASA/ESA/STScI.

Hubble: This is M75, a globular cluster of over 400,000 stars. Located 67,500 light years from Earth, it's estimated to be 13 billion years old - NASA/ESA/STScI.

One of Hubble's most famous photos: the Pillars of Creation, which are actually columns of interstellar dust.

The Tarantula Nebula, or 30 Doradus, one of the largest star-forming regions in the vicinity of our galaxy.

RS Puppis is a variable star belonging to the category of cepheids. It is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy.

This is Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the Southern Pisces constellation.

This is star cluster Pismis 24, in the centre of the NGC 6357 nebula.

Here is the most detailed photo ever taken of the Crab Nebula.

Here is one of the most complete images of galaxies made by Hubble: it is the barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 1300.

Here, the ghostly glow of a dead star that exploded as a supernova can be seen.

Here's the best photo ever taken of the Antennae galaxies.

This is the Gourd Nebula, or Rotten Egg Nebula, so called because of its high concentration of sulfur.

This is the Lyra Nebula, also called M57.

Here are the pair of spiral galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298.

This is an incredible view of the Orion, or Messier 42 nebula.

Here is the disc-shaped lenticular galaxy IC 335, which is part of a group of four galaxies.

These are the 'Mystic Mountains,' a region of the Hull Nebula.

This is M2-9, the planetary and bipolar Butterfly Nebula.

This is MACS J0717, one of the most complex clusters of galaxies discovered to date.

This is MCG 07-33-027, a galaxy known as a starburst galaxy because of its high production of stars.

This is NGC 6861, a galaxy in the Telescopium constellation. It has the peculiarity of being neither spiral, nor elliptical, but lenticular.

This is UCS 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula.

This stellar nursery is known as the Eagle Nebula.