Search

Showing results for “Hubble Space Telescope”

Jump to a topic

Hubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is NASA's most productive mission ever, having made over 1.7 million observations since its launch in 1990. Named after Edwin Hubble—the astronomer who first identified and classified galaxies outside our own—the space-based observatory's cameras and sensors can capture visible light and parts of the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. Hubble's development can be traced to Lyman Spitzer's 1946 vision of a telescope placed in orbit, which won full congressional funding in 1977. The first images it returned were fuzzy, due to optical flaws in its primary mirror. Subsequent service missions as part of the Space Shuttle program repaired the flaws and expanded Hubble's capabilities with camera and systems upgrades. Since the repairs, Hubble has long surpassed its original 15-year mission, observing a comet colliding with Jupiter, discovering that black holes are at the centers of most galaxies, measuring water vapor in an exoplanet's atmosphere, and capturing images of the formation, life, and death of stars. The telescope is expected to be retired and burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the mid-2030s.Explore Hubble Space Telescope

Space Shuttle NASA James Webb Space Telescope Big Bang

What we've found

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—the first major NASA space telescope named after a woman—is expected to survey 12% of the sky in 17 months, a feat that would take the Hubble Space Telescope over a thousand years. Dr. Becky View a simulated demonstration of how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will survey large portions of the sky to capture in 90 minutes what took three years for the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA Goddard Over a decade before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, Nancy Roman oversaw the Orbiting Solar Observatory program, which launched eight spinning spacecraft into low Earth orbit to study the sun. The Space Review Nancy Roman, NASA's first Chief of Astronomy and the architect of the Hubble Space Telescope, was discouraged from pursuing science throughout her academic career. NASA Goddard Take a 360-degree tour of Discovery with Kathryn Sullivan and Charles Bolden, who flew together on the space shuttle during its deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. (VR device-compatible) Google Arts and Culture Major milestones of the Space Shuttle program's 135 missions included the launches of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the first American woman and African-American astronauts in space. Space.com The Challenger disaster delayed the launch of the Hubble Space TelescopeThe 1986 explosion of the space shuttle shortly after liftoff killed seven crew members and grounded NASA's space fleet. Scientists used the downtime to refine ground control software and upgrade telescope instrument sensitivity, but maintaining the telescope's clean room storage cost NASA approximately $6M per month. History.com Designs for the Hubble Space Telescope were based on Cold War spy satellitesBy incorporating elements of the KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellites, NASA could incorporate existing classified manufacturing expertise and infrastructure from the intelligence community to expedite the research project. Universe Magazine The Hubble Space Telescope made discoveries within our solar system and across the universeThe observatory helped confirm the presence of water on Jupiter's moon Europa, and uncovered seasonal variations on planets like Uranus. It also observed exoplanets and gravitational lensing, proved the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and detected the accelerated expansion of the universe. BBC Sky at Night Magazine Atmospheric drag is causing the Hubble Space Telescope to drift toward Earth slowlyWithout interventions to boost the observatory to a higher orbit, Hubble is expected to fall to Earth's surface in the mid-2030s. In the meantime, the telescope is expected to continue to be productive by shifting its mode of operation to rely on a single gyroscope, down from three. NPR The Hubble Space Telescope uses curved mirrors to collect and focus lightClassified as a Cassegrain reflector, the observatory bounces incoming visible light and some infrared and ultraviolet light off a primary mirror with a diameter of 2.4 meters. The reflected light is directed to a secondary mirror, which reflects it through a tiny hole in the primary mirror and onto detectors. Space.com Fly through the deepest image of space ever taken by the Hubble Space TelescopeTaken over 11 days between 2003 and 2004, when the space telescope was aimed at a seemingly empty patch of the sky, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field revealed about 10,000 sources of light, most of which are entire galaxies. This visualization expands the 2D image into a 3D view spanning 12 billion years. BBC The Hubble Space Telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Powell HubbleUsing the Hooker Telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California in the 1920s, Hubble identified Cepheid variable stars in what was believed to be the Andromeda nebula. These stars can be used to determine distance in space, allowing Hubble to realize that Andromeda was a galaxy of its own. NASA Science View galleries of images taken by the Hubble Space TelescopeWith more than 1.7 million observations made since 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of space missions, planets, stellar nurseries, interstellar comets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. This search tool allows users to sort and filter across these celestial objects to explore over 35 years of Hubble's astrophotography. NASA Science Visualize the impact of approximately 9,000 metric tons of satellites and space debris orbiting Earth—70% of which, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, do so in low Earth orbit.The space junk problem involves millions of objects orbiting the Earth at incredible speeds. Coupled with the fact that all of this is taking place in space – an environment most of us are unfamiliar with – this means it is difficult for many people to visualize the scale of the problem. This piece from the Financial Times serves as a valuable tool for grasping why this issue is important. Financial Times Nicknamed the "mother of Hubble," Nancy Roman gave lectures on the potential of space science, coordinated between astronomers and engineers, and secured government funding for the space telescope. NASA Blurriness in the James Webb Space Telescope's infrared imaging was fixed by AIAustralian researchers developed the Aperture Masking Interferometry Generative Observations AI algorithm to sharpen images affected by electronic distortions in the JWST's Aperture Masking Interferometer. Space.com Colorizers convert Hubble's gray scale images into color composites of different wavelengthsThe near-infrared and ultraviolet light captured by the space telescope is not visible to human eyes, but observational data of these types of light can be filtered and modified into visible colors. Many detailed images of astronomical objects are the result of combining these artificially colored images into layers. VideoFromSpace Between 1993 and 2009, Hubble was serviced for repairs and upgrades 5 timesAcross 21 space walks totaling 144 hours, replacement instruments, gyroscopes, solar arrays, batteries, and computer systems have helped extend the Hubble Space Telescope's operational lifetime beyond its planned 15 years. NASA Watch a tour of a 3D visualization of the Pillars of CreationCombining observational data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes has allowed NASA scientists to create a multiwavelength model of the star-forming region at the heart of the Eagle nebula. NASA Goddard The scattering of light in the early universe prevents seeing the beginning of timeA "cosmic fog" of elementary particles in the early universe prevented light from traveling far before being absorbed. Only 380,000 years after the big bang, when the first atoms formed, was light free to travel and reach telescopes for study. UMBC Observations from Hubble contributed to Pluto's demotion from planetary statusBefore the flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope provided images of Pluto and its moon Charon, which was similar in size. Rather than a unique ninth planet, Pluto became reclassified as a dwarf planet, like many similar objects in the Kuiper Belt. Astronomy Cast The next generation of space-based observatoriesHow exactly does a space telescope come to be funded by NASA? NASA's most famous telescopes, like Hubble and James Webb, were once featured in the decadal survey–a once per decade survey run by the National Academy of Science that recommends which projects to support. This article and podcast covers which telescope designs are in contention to be part of NASA's next generation of space-based observatories. The Planetary Society An imperfection 1/50th the width of a human hair blurred Hubble's initial imagesNot all parts of the space telescope's primary mirror focused incoming light to the same location, an effect known as spherical aberration. Because Hubble was designed to reside in low Earth orbit and be serviced by astronauts, service missions were deployed in the years after its launch to conduct repairs. National Air and Space Museum Space telescope development was driven by a desire to bypass Earth's atmosphereThe most important figure in the effort to create what would become the Hubble Space Telescope was Lyman Spitzer, who first proposed a telescope in orbit in 1946. The nearly 50-year endeavor led to space-based observatories, which are not limited by Earth's atmosphere absorbing or distorting most wavelengths of light. American Museum of Natural History Hubble's average used power is less than half the power generated by its solar arraysThe space telescope's components use about 2,100 watts, or about as much power as five refrigerators. When exposed to sunlight, the solar arrays can generate over 5,200 watts for the observatory, which was engineered by a team that included Judith Love Cohen, mother of actor Jack Black. 1440 The James Webb Space Telescope is rewriting what we know about the early universeThanks to its advanced infrared sensors and massive mirror, the James Webb Space Telescope can see farther back in cosmic history than Hubble, revealing galaxies formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. 1440 Hubble overcame early optical failure and became a critical scientific instrumentThe flaw in Hubble's mirror was smaller than the width of a human hair, but fixing it required a space mission as complex as a Hollywood rescue story—with astronauts installing corrective optics like contact lenses for a giant eye in the sky. NASA See where the James Webb Space Telescope is in space right nowWebb travels through space in a stable orbit, but unlike the Hubble, it doesn't orbit around Earth. The Webb orbits around the sun in a way that allows it to always be in line with the Earth, as you can see in this visualization of the telescope's real-time position. NASA

Try another search?