If you’ve been paying attention to the news in the past year you’ve no doubt heard about the James Webb Space Telescope. However, there is another space telescope that still deserves your attention. The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope named after Edwin Hubble, a pioneer in astronomy. The telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, and has been collecting data ever since. The telescope has had a lot of different renovations and upgrades in the past few decades. There have been 5 repair missions where astronauts attach new parts with the latest technology, so it is capable of gathering more information and reaching new heights. The telescope has made over 1.5 million observations of over 40,000 celestial objects. The Hubble is still vital to astronomy research to this day and transmits about 150 gigabits of raw science data every week. The Hubble is located about 322 miles above the Earth’s surface and is in orbit around the Earth, making one orbit in 96 minutes. In order for this instrument to collect images and data it has several mirrors on it. The front mirror reflects off of the side mirror in order to focus the light and take high-quality photos.
What is unique about the Hubble telescope is that it has discovered a lot about our galaxy and has been a key tool in identifying many different types of stars. It has been able to peer into the universe to distances of 13.4 billion light years. Since the speed of light is finite, this means the Hubble telescope can also peer back to about 13.4 billion years into the history of the universe. This telescope has seen many different things in our universe, from planet formation to supermassive black holes, and captured many beautiful photos. It has seen stars being born and die; it has helped astronomers understand how galaxies form and evolve; it has found evidence for dark matter and has found out the age of the universe.
Scientists are hoping to build a new telescope that compliments the Hubble with mirrors twice the size hoping to capture a lot more light to gather more information about our universe. Overall, the Hubble telescope is a vital part of all things astronomy and has made many trailblazing discoveries.
You’ve been listening to Western Slope Skies, produced by the Black Canyon Astronomical Society and KVNF Community Radio. This feature was written and recorded by Mora Bleier, an astronomy student of Dr. Catherine Whiting at Colorado Mesa University.
