Why is the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) famous?« Back to Questions List

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is one of the largest, multipurpose space based telescope. It has contributed tremendously for the progress in the field of astronomy. It was launched in 1990 and continues to be operational.   HST is positioned in a low Earth orbit.  Hubble Space Telescope functions as a research tool and a public relation boon for astronomy.

The orbit of HST is outside of the atmosphere of Earth. Light coming from other stars or galaxies gets distorted while entering the atmosphere of the earth. Hence ground based telescopes fail to capture clear images and sensitive information. The position of the Hubble Space Telescope makes it capable of capturing high resolution images with minimum background light. The accuracy of the telescope is extremely high. It is able to focus a target without deviating more than 7/1000th of an arcsecond which  is equivalent to the width of a human hair seen from a distance of 1 mile. These features have helped researchers to identify many gravitational lenses and Einstein rings, in the recent past.  HST has a 2.4 meter ( 7.9 ft) mirror. The four major instruments in the HST continuously observe the near ultraviolet, visible and near infrared spectra.  Observations aided by the Hubble Space Telescope has thrown light into the expansion process of universe leading to register breakthroughs in astrophysics.

The HST, is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble.  The Hubble Space Telescope was built by NASA with support from the European Space Agency. It is one of the great observatories of NASA, the other major ones being the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The Goddard Space Flight Center controls the spacecraft while the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is responsible for selecting the targets of the HST and processing the data received.

Space telescope has a long history. It was proposed in 1923. Hubble was funded in 1970 but was launched only in 1990, due to various challenges the project had to face include budget constraints. After launch too, the main mirror failed perform as expected which was finally corrected in 1993.  It was launched by Space Shuttle Discovery. Thereafter, next five space shuttle missions repaired  and upgraded the systems in the telescope. The telescope is estimated to be in service till 2040. Its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is getting ready to be launched in May 2020.

In the initial phases of humankind, the observation of universe was done with naked eye. The experiments started by Galileo in 1610, began the next. During the last 400 years many secrets of the universe have been revealed.  We learned lot of things about other planets, galaxies, distant stars and so on.  The Hubble Telescope too can be proud of having contributed a lot in the research of universe.  

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