What is Hubble Space Telescope?
1. What is the Hubble Space Telescope
A Telescope takes images of the universe and sends it back to Earth to be studied. In 1990 the Hubble Telescope was launched in a spaceship called Discovery. It was named after Edwin Hubble, an astronomer that discovered that the universe extended beyond the Milky Way.
2. What challenges did it have to face?
The Hubble was ready to be launched in 1985 but in 1986 a spaceship called the Challenger exploded on its way to space due to faulty design and it took 32 months to clean up the mess and design a new one
Shortly after the Hubble was launched, a problem with the primary mirrors was detected that caused the images it took to be blurry
3. What are servicing missions?
NASA conducted servicing missions every couple of years to make sure all the equipment was working. Astronauts have serviced Hubble 5 times on missions launched in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2009.
4. What discoveres has it made?
Hubble helped discover the age of the universe which is about 13.8 billion years
Discovered two moons of Pluto - Nix and Hydra
Helped discover the rate that the universe is expanding
Discovered that nearly every major galaxy has a black hole in the centre
Discovered more than 4000 extrasolar planets, which are planets outside our solar system
Allowed scientists to make a map of dark matter in our universe, dark matter is invisible and creates the structure of galaxies
Discovered clouds of gas where stars are bursting into life
Captured light echoes which are created by bursts of stars
Kept track of collisions of asteroids on the asteroid belt
Confirmed that planets form in the dust around stars
Captured stars dying by exploding and creating beautiful nebulas which are clouds of cosmic dust
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