The Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Telescope has been one of the most beneficial tools for discoveries and research since the beginning of the study of astronomy. When the Hubble Telescope was launched in 1990, it was sent 353 miles above earths surface where it would orbit earth at an incredible speed. The telescope orbits earth every 97 minutes. When Hubble was initially sent to space, there was a problem detected with the shape of its mirror. It is a Cassegrain reflector telescope that utilizes multiple mirrors that are able to capture and process much more light than the human eye. Therefore, the improper shape of the mirror was a critical problem that affected the clarity of pictures it was able to take. NASA then sent a space shuttle to repair the mirror. It has since been fixed and is routinely serviced in order to keep its abilities and technology up to date.

The Importance of the Hubble Telescope has been tremendous. The reason that Hubble is superior to other telescopes is due to its operation outside of the earths atmosphere. This limits the capabilities of most ground telescopes because the earths atmosphere blocks and absorbs some different types of radiation that is given off by planets and stars. This is what causes them to twinkle to our eyes. The best way to study and observe these astronomical objects is with their given radiation which will allow us to discover more about it. The Hubble Telescope has thus shown us images that we could not have obtained before. And with these images we have been able to discover many things about the universe. One of these being we now have narrowed the age of the universe greatly to 13-14 billion years. Before Hubble we estimated it anywhere from 10- 20 billion years old. We have also been able to study galaxies, stars, and planets in much greater detail. Therefore, we owe much of our recent astronomical discoveries to the great benefit of the Hubble Telescope.

Hubble Telescope