According to NASA, the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, upgraded by the Atlantis astronauts in May, is back to work with a bang!

NASA's recent announcement that the observatory's new instruments have been tested and calibrated was substantiated by agency's release of a series of spectacular images that Hubble has captured - that of far-off galaxies, a star cluster and a butterfly nebula.

Referring to the multi-wavelength pictures and spectroscopic observations, Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, remarked: "This marks a new beginning for Hubble. The telescope was given an extreme makeover and now is significantly more powerful than ever, well-equipped to last into the next decade."

The Hubble 'makeover' was one of the chief tasks that the Atlantis astronauts undertook during their 11-day space mission in May. Carrying out five spacewalks, one after the other, the astronauts replaced six of the Hubble's gyroscopes, its six batteries, and a failed computer unit.

In addition, one broken-down wide-field imaging camera was repaired, and a brand-new, more powerful camera was installed. Similarly, Hubble's existing Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph was also repaired and a new one was added.

With the upgrade, the can not only run for another 5-8 years, but has also become more powerful - capable of looking out towards the edge of the observable universe, to probe the early history of the cosmos!