Seeing the Unseen: The Hubble Telescope
The universe is a vast and complex system that has fascinated astronomers for as far back as mankind can remember. Astronomers and scientists alike have imparted a common goal and that is to see as far into the cosmos as possible and shed light on some of universe’s great mysteries. Technology has allowed great advances in space exploration and given mankind the tools to be able to view the space in ways that were never thought possible. One such advancement was the Hubble Telescope which was launched in 1990 yet the brainchild of decades of research and composition. Now celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Hubble Telescope has a rich history utilizing years of investigation and hard work.
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The Hubble Telescope, a Cassegrain reflector, utilizes mirrors to reflect and concentrate light (from the Sun) throughout its structure and to its internal instruments. Hubble completes a revolution around the Earth every 97 minutes at a rate of five miles per second and as it spins its mirrors capture light which is used by its imaging devices to create observations. The major selling point for the Hubble telescope project and what would be its greatest asset is its ability to produce clear and concise images of space that was impossible from ground level. One of the biggest obstacles in observing space from the ground level is Earth’s atmosphere which can distort the clarity and light coming in from space. If you were to sit at the bottom of a pool and look up through the water, images would be inaccurate however once you come out through the surface the images around you would be clear (Invisible Universe Revealed). This is the same hindrance that applies to viewing space through Earth’s atmosphere which utilizing the Hubble telescope in space set to eliminate. Unfortunately, the images produced from Hubble’s initial launch were blurry which sent its panel into a panic as they scrambled to come up with a solution. The primary mirror in the Hubble Telescope had a flaw known as spherical aberration in which it had been polished …show more content…
Thanks to the Hubble the universe is estimated to be about 13 to 14 billion years old and its evolution, along with numerous scientific articles, is more accurately calculated based on the data provided by telescope. The amount of discovery based on the observations made by the Hubble Telescope since its inauguration have made it one the most important observatories in astronomy. This legacy will continue past its retirement with Hubble’s tenure providing the foundation for future space
Just under seven years ago, astronomers using the Hubble space telescope presented results they hoped would help answer one of the most contentious issues in astronomy of the 20th century – the question of the distance scale of the universe. But there was some unease when the result was announced. According to the report, other galaxies were close enough that, extrapolating backwards from their current rate of recession and making adjustments for the influence of gravity, they all would have been together (that is, the Big Bang would have occurred) as recently as 8 billion years ago. Unfortunately, there was strong evidence already in place that some stars were at least 12-15
The Hubble Space Telescope has been sent into space to take pictures of our universe. Hubble has made more than 1.2 million observations since its launch on 1990. The Hubble weighs 27,000 pounds. It does not travel, it just takes
Hubble helped determine the age of the universe and the way galaxies are formed. Revealed extraordinary detail about the process by which sun-like stars end their lives as planetary nebulae. The telescope allows to study the universe across a wide swath of the light spectrum structure of the universe and map the distribution of elements fundamental to life. Astronomers believe they formed the most distant objects with Hubble with a Distance of 13.2 billion years away. According to nbcnews.com, Scientist Labb`e stated that previous searches have found 47 galaxies at an adequately later time, when the universe was about 650 millions years old. Hubble has also discovered dark matter. Dark matter is invisible, but reveals its existence via gravity, makes up roughly 23% of the universe. The telescope made it easier to understand how Dark Matter behaves and could help scientist figure out more detail about dark matter. Hubble has greatly expanded astronomers knowledge of the Universe. Before the telescope, distance to far off galaxies were not well known. Hubble’s millionth exposure is of the Planet HAT-P-7b, a gas giant planet larger than Jupiter orbiting a star hotter than our sun. HAT-P-7b, also known as 2b, has been studied by NASA’s planet hunting Kepler observatory after it was discovered by ground- based observations. Hubble now is being used to analyze the chemical composition of the planet’s
This has helped us learn far more about the origins of our Universe and the formation of galaxies from around a billion years after the creation of the Universe, where the galaxies appear to be very shapeless and small, to today where they are larger and formed into spirals or discs. The Hubble Space Telescope has helped pinpoint the age of the Universe to 13.7 billion years22 by studying 31 Cepheid variable stars22, whose fluctuating brightness can be used to calculate their distance thus the expansion and therefore age of the Universe. Knowing the age of the Universe helps astronomers and cosmologists model the Universe and its evolution over its lifetime accurately, which is immensely valuable information to
On April 24th of 1990, The Hubble Space Telescope was launched. This was an important event for NASA, because they finally had something to looked further into the space. The Hubble Space Telescope was known as (HST), and it was sent to orbit around our earthly planet. Did you know it took only 97 minutes to orbit around our planet? Hubble Space Telescope helped change the NASA’s thought on the universe because,
In 2016 the Hubble space telescope celebrated its 26th year in space. The Hubble space telescope has opened our eyes to the secrets of the universe.
In the 1920’s Hubble determined that there were similar Cepheid stars in nearby galaxies like ones in our own Galaxy. With this discovery, he learned that they were faint and thus far away from Earth. He found a way to measure distance by finding common features that we already knew about in our own galaxy. Hubbles’ discoveries were not perfect since his tools and calibrations were not sophisticated, but his ideas helped to implement early forms of determining distance of objects in our Solar System.
This essay took you through the implications of the telescope to our understanding of the universe, the telescope's discoveries, , the Hubble space telescope’s description, and Hubble’s life story. As a wise man once said, “We find them smaller and fainter, in constantly increasing numbers, and we know that we are reaching into space, farther and farther, until, with the faintest nebulae that can be detected with the greatest telescopes, we arrive at the frontier of the known universe.”- Edwin
In 1924, he discovered a Cepheid, or variable star, in the Andromeda Nebulae which was believed to be a cluster of dust and gases in our solar system. The Cepheid variable that Hubble observed was a star that would brighten and fade in a predictable pattern. This type of star had already been used to measure distance in space, and this discovery enabled Hubble to determine the Andromeda Nebulae was a galaxy of its own over 900,000 light years away. Before his discoveries, it was believed that only the galaxy we live in existed. By 1930, astronomers were convinced that millions of galaxies existed, and Hubble developed a system, still used today, to classify galaxies based on their
Stars are a marvelous wonder to many people, that is why some people spend most of their lives wondering what is “above the world so high” (Gardner 98). These people study and map the little twinkling stars in order to get a better meaning of them; they are astronomers. Great astronomers like Edwin Hubble, Immanuel Kant, and William Huggins, never stopped valuing the beauty of the stars. While they developed great astronomical principals. One astronomer who fits this mold most is, Edwin Powell Hubble. Wondering about what was
Another great advantage of the Hubble telescope, is that it allows Astronomers to have observations without the interference of cloud cover and illuminating glow of the atmosphere that is caused by the light from the sun. The reason why Hubble allows Astronomers to have such great observations without the above interferences, is because Hubble is in space and is orbiting the Earth. Also, being that Hubble orbits the Earth and is above the atmosphere, this allows Hubble and it's Astronomers to have a wide range view of the electromagnetic spectrum. One of the greatest things about Hubble is that it allows observations to be consistent and it's optical stability allows Astronomers to detect small changes in what they are
As proposed in an article posted on amazing space.org, “The telescope, a basic reflector with a 94.5 in (2.4 meters) mirror.” While also having being a second mirror that the light bounces to to. Within that mirror, many instruments were compacted together that allowed for clear and visible views in infrared and ultraviolet light. It was different compared to any other ground based telescope whereas it allowed astronomers to observe and witness details that had never been seen before due to Earth being in the way for those other telescopes. The telescope revolves around the earth completely every ninety-seven minutes at the speed of five miles per second, allowing for many observations in space. The observations occur when light hits the main mirror and then bounces towards the second mirror in which the second one focuses the light. The telescope began to be created in 1977 and was originally supposed to launch during the year of 1985. Unfortunately an accident had occurred when a space shuttle challenger exploded and flights into space took a halt. It was finally launched on April 4th of 1990 once the halt had stopped. The improved observations had begun and the history of astronomy had changed. Unfortunately there were some minor setbacks that had to be dealt with. One setback was that the primary mirror was ground incorrectly in which the curve of it was too flat. It was off just
Astronomers in a new study have observed around 10,000 galaxies. Which are currently present in the Universe using a survey of the sky. Survey is created by the Herschel ATLAS and GAMA projects.
The Hubble telescope is a compound telescope design where light enters the telescope through the opening and bounces off the primary mirror to a secondary mirror. Then the secondary mirror reflects the light through a hole in the center of the primary mirror to a focal point behind the primary mirror. At the focal point, half transparent mirrors distribute the light to the various scientific instruments. The Hubble Telescope mirrors are made of glass and coated with multiple layers of pure aluminum that are three-millionths of an inch thick and a coat of magnesium fluoride that is one-millionth of an inch thick to make them reflect visible, infra-red and ultraviolet light. The primary mirror weighs 1825 pounds and the secondary mirror weighs in at 27.4 pounds.
Edwin P. Hubble was a ground-breaking American astronomer who revolutionized our knowledge of the universe and established the foundations for all of modern cosmology. At the beginning of the 20th century, most astronomers thought that our Universe was confined to the Milky Way Galaxy alone. However, Edwin Hubble's inspiration and perseverance in astronomical research proved otherwise. He discovered the existence of other galaxies and created a systematical classification for all galaxies. Additionally, he mathematically confirmed that his newly discovered universe was expanding. Hubble's astronomical triumphs earned him worldwide scientific honors and pioneered our modern cosmology.