To celebrate 30 years since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA released a stunning image taken by Hubble, showing the giant red nebula NGC 2014 and its blue neighbour NGC 2020.

These two nebulae are part of the Large Magellanic Cloud located at more than 160,000 light years away from the Earth. On the right of the photo, the NGC 2014 is an active region of star formation. The strong radiation of new born stars cause the excitation of hydrogen atoms and the corresponding emission of red light. On the lower left of the photo, the NGC 2020 was originated from the birth of a massive star, the radiation of the star created a cavity and ionized the surrounding oxygen atoms to produce blue light. This image is nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef" because of the coral reef-like appearance.

So far, the Hubble Space Telescope has accomplished 1.4 million observations. It is going to stay operational in the next few years to provide more data for astronomical research and capture beautiful images of the space just as the "Cosmic Reef".