The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (1991–2000), the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope (2003–2020). At the time of its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope cost $4.7 billion (equivalent to $9,310,200,000 in 2020).
Hubble features a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror, and its four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of atmosphere of Earth allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. It has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe.
The Hubble telescope was built by the United States space agency NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft. Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. Hubble was funded in the 1970s with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the 1986 Challenger disaster. It was finally launched by Discovery in 1990, but its main mirror had been ground incorrectly, resulting in spherical aberration that compromised the telescope's capabilities. The optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993.
Hubble is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. Five Space Shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments. The fifth mission was initially canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster (2003), but NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission which was completed in 2009. The telescope completed 30 years in operation in April 2020 and could last until 2030–2040. One successor to the Hubble telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is scheduled to be launched in late 2021.
I heard the decision this morning to drop the Hubble Space Telescope into the Pacific Ocean. I wondered what the required delta v would be to move the Hubble into a "safe" service orbit nearer the ISS. The rescue options that have been most public have been either a robitic service mission or...
Hubble got this forumula ,
Density=kH^2
k=constant
H=Hubble constant
What are the experimantal difficulties in determining the density of the universe accurately ?
Ans:The mass of the whole universe is difficult to find
same to the volume as well...what else ?please help me out...
Hubble Approaches the Final Frontier: The Dawn of Galaxies, a PR earlier today, includes some interesting results, as well as a good insight into how five different teams analysed the data in different ways to arrive at more or less the same, or mutually re-inforcing, conclusions.
From this...
I saw once a while back on the History Channel that Hubble looks something like 14.5 billion years into the past? I know very very very little about physics but this has me very interested. Could some one clarify this a bit? I assume that the reason Hubble looks into the past is because the...
If you are a US citizen, and wish to add your voice to those who want to save Hubble, you may be interested in http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1200_1.asp
According to this article, some powerful folk are fighting O'Keefe's decision:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1160_1.asp
You might want to have your say too.
I read recently on the BBC digital news service that Hubble has taken a picture of the Universe that dates back further than any other and to do this i stayed fixed on one spot of the Universe for 80 days. How is it that, it worked?
Im sure i should know why, but just can't seem to get my...
This may be a simple question but I didn’t found anything in my references: the vacuum energy density is a constant value, which depends on the virtual excitations of the quantum fields. If the universe expands, increases its volume, and the vacuum energy density remains is constant, does this...
I heard this question on a radio talk show.
The original plan was to send up another shuttle mission to retrieve the Hubble so that it could be displayed in the Smithsonian Musuem. But with the Challanger and Columbia accidents behind us, do you think the risk is worth it? What should be...
(1) Go ahead and save it with the shuttle.
(2) Keep it in orbit (maintenance missions).
(3) Let it burn up in the atmosphere.
(4) Other.
Heard this question posed on a radio talk show. The original plan was that, once its performance period was done*, a shuttle mission would be sent up...
The "Hubble speed" of Imagine
whereever Imagine goes, a crowd of people always collects, trying to explain the world----Imagine exerts a kind of magnetism or enchantment----and being no exception I also feel compelled to explain the world to Imagine.
Most recently Imagine has written...
What is our actual Hubble "speed" ?
Bonjour,
Upon Hubble constant, recession speed is decreasing with distance (or time!-). That could be interpreted as deceleration but some persons articulate that as metric expansion (or metric expansion decelerating over time ?-).
What is our own...
Bonjour,
From what I red (understand??), the Hubble constant is calculated from galaxy's distance (from us and each other).
1) Is the information speed limit (c) considered constant althrough (through out??) the path?
2) Is the distance from us mesured using redshift only?
3) When...
I am trying to understand how the doppler effect was used when determining that the other stars were moving away from us. I get that the spectral lines observed are shifted and by examining that data we can calculate how fast its moving and if it is towards or away from us. could anyone...
I see often that rhocrit(the critical density of matter), is expressed this way:
rhocrit=(3*(H^2))/(8*pi*G)
This is not correct because a cosmological constant is missed.
This is the Friedmann Equation:
H^2=((8*pi*G*rhocrit)/3)+(lambda/3)-(k/(a^2))
Since it is known that the curvature(k)of...
In 1998 "Hubble volume" meant a cube 12 billion LY on a side
Majin asked what is Hubble volume.
I did a google search and found that in 1998 there was
a computer simulation study at one of the Max Planck institutes
which simulated a cube
12 billion LY on a side (comoving distance)
other...