A Decade of HUBBLE.The world's most famous telescope gives new meaning to "star search." HUBBLE FACT The speedy Hubble travels at 5 miles pep second and can orbit Earth in 97 minutes! Say happy tenth birthday to Hubble. The legendary Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. (named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble Noun 1. Edwin Hubble - United States astronomer who discovered that (as the universe expands) the speed with which nebulae recede increases with their distance from the observer (1889-1953) Edwin Powell Hubble, Hubble ) was launched into orbit 595 kilometers (370 miles) above Earth on April 25, 1990. Its historic mission: to probe the universe beyond the range of our dusty, distorting atmosphere, which hampers the clarity of ground-based telescopes. In its first decade Hubble has circled Earth 58,000 times, zoomed in on almost 25,000 celestial objects, and snapped more than 270,000 dazzling images--including a comet bombarding Bombarding is the process of 'pumping' a Cold Cathode Lighting tube (otherwise called Neon Signs). Information A detailed process of bombarding can be found here, Bombarding. Jupiter, and the faint light of young galaxies near the edge of the observable universe  This article or section may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted which do not the text.Please help [ improve this article] by checking for inaccuracies. . "Not since Galileo aimed a small telescope into the night sky in 1609 has humanity's vision of the universe been revolutionized so quickly by a single instrument," says David Leckrone, Hubble Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md. Hubble is by far the best optical light (using visible wavelengths) telescope ever made. Using Hubble, scientists study visible light emitted from objects thousands of light-years away (one light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 9.5 trillion kilometers). Light beams leave distant stars, travel for years or centuries, and eventually reach the telescope, which captures the beams as an image. Hubble's antenna then transmits the picture to laboratories on Earth. Astronomers now rely on Hubble to calculate the age of the universe and understand how planets, stars, and galaxies form and die. One recent image shows glowing rings of hot gas and showering streamers Streamers is a play by David Rabe. The last in his Vietnam War trilogy that began with The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Sticks and Bones of cooler gas around the remnant of a dying star in the constellation Aquila--similar to what our own Sun will look like in its death throes throe n. 1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth. See Synonyms at pain. 2. throes A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse. six billion years from now. Although Hubble has required astronauts to make a few repairs on faulty machinery, the telescope is expected to continue capturing amazing data until 2010. Then a larger optical light telescope--the Next Generation Space Telescope--will replace it and take over as Earth's new "star" in the sky. INSIDE HUBBLE Two solar panels gather the sun's energy and use it to charge Hubble's Batteries. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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