Yesterday marked 25 years since the Hubble telescope was launched into orbit. After a famously blurry start, more than a few servicing missions, and at least one totally awesome IMAX movie, the telescope has provided reliably amazing images of the universe for more than two decades. To celebrate the achievement, NASA released this gorgeous photograph (sampled in the banner overhead), which shows a cluster of 3,000 stars (just left of center), and the gaseous stellar nursery in which they were all forged a mere 2 million years ago. Meanwhile, the New York Times asked several noted astronomers to identify and describe their favorite Hubble images, and you can view their selections at this link. (For the record, Neil DeGrasse Tyson politely declined to answer. “Can’t do it,” he explained. “Like picking your favorite child.”) Finally, if you have a few minutes and find your mind in need of nourishment, I encourage you to check out the Hubble Heritage website, where NASA curators have assembled a gallery of the most beautiful places in the universe that one can see from Low Earth Orbit.