BY PARKER J . E . CARTE

Eyes in the Sky: The Hubble Space

Telescope

People Love to Look at the Sky

For centuries, people have enjoyed looking at the sky

People have raised many questions What are the planets made of? How big is the universe?

People knew that they needed more than their eyes to answer all the questions that they have about space

Telescopes

Dutch lensmakers made the first telescope in 1608

Telescopes are essential in the science of astronomy

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who heard about the Dutch telescope

He started to build his own telescopesHe made special glass lenses for hisHe put a lens in a tube that would magnify

objects

Galileo’s Telescope

By 1609, Galileo built a telescope that would magnify object twenty times

Galileo began to see special things Craters on the moon Mountains on the moon Stars of our galaxy Four of Jupiter’s moons

As a result of Galileo’s work, scientists worked to improve the telescope

Scientists began to add mirrors with the lenses This combination of mirrors and lenses allowed them to see farther into

spaceToday, computer-controlled telescopes are used to explore

the depths of space

What Are the Best Places for Telescopes?

Scientists still can’t see as clearly as they would like because of three major drawbacks Smoke, particle, and other types of pollution Artificial lights (especially in cities) Earth’s atmosphere is made up of layers of gases that distort light

coming from space Moisture in the air bends and reflects light and makes objects look blurry

Scientists have found ways to avoid these problems They built telescopes away from cities They are built in deserts and on mountaintops

Air is thinner and cleaner They’ve even been placed on dormant volcanoes

Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano is home to the twin Keck telescopes

The Keck Telescopes

Their favorable location on Earth has made them a powerful tool for astronomers

They have provided some great picturesThey have to look at the universe through the

Earth’s atmosphereStill presents some problems Scientists continued to look for even better

options

The Hubble Space Telescope

Scientists have used the Hubble Space Telescope since 1990

It doesn’t have to look at the universe through Earth’s atmosphere

It floats through spaceIt is high above the EarthSpace is the very best place

for a telescope

History of The Hubble Space Telescope

In 1975, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) started working to develop a space telescope

Eventually, the telescope was named the Hubble Space Telescope

It is named in honor of Edwin Powell Hubble American astronomer who lived from 1899 to 1953

History of The Hubble Space Telescope

It was designed so that visiting astronauts could repair and improve it on a regular basis

Scientists thought it would last 15 years with the ongoing maintenance

The plan was for astronauts from all over the world to use it for space research

It took many years to build itIt finally went into space on April 24, 1990It was carried to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery

It was set into orbit 375 miles above the Earth on April 25, 1990

The Hubble Space Telescope:Some Quick Facts

Size 43.5 feet long (about the size of a school bus) On Earth, it weighed 12 tons

Orbit Circles Earth at a speed of 5 miles per second Every 97 minutes, it complete one orbit

Position It can hold steady for extended periods to allow its cameras to take

pictures It has a pointing control system the constantly corrects its position

Data Collection and Communication It collects almost 4 gigabytes of data every day

That is enough information to fill up an entire set of encyclopedias The information is transmitted to scientists on Earth by satellites

The Hubble Space Telescope:Time for “Eyeglasses”

After being in space for a month, it started sending pictures back to Earth

Images were sent in radio signalsPeople were expecting perfect pictures of spacePictures were actually fuzzyScientists found the problem

One of its primary mirrors was flatter than it should have been The flaw was very tiny—thinner than one human hair

Scientists decided to put “eyeglasses” on it They created a set of corrective mirrors to cancel out the

defect in the primary mirror This worked the same way glasses work on people

How Did It Actually Get the “Eyeglasses”

In December 1993, a crew from the Space Shuttle Endeavour was sent to make the repair

Once in space, astronauts hauled the telescope into the shuttle’s cargo bay

They spent 5 days installing the mirrorsThe pictures were spectacular after the

repairs

The Views from The Hubble Space Telescope

It has taken pictures from galaxies near and farIt has taken a picture of Spiral galaxy NGC 3949 which is

more than 50 million light-years awayIn 2002, astronauts installed a new camera and other

scientific instrumentsThe new instruments allowed it to go even further into

spaceThe final servicing mission took place in May 2009It has been able to see areas that were never able to be

seen before Light that it is picking up has taken billions of years to travel to Earth Galaxies in this new area have strange shapes, sizes, and colors

They are not spiral like the galaxies we see closer to us

Sources

www.galileo.rice.edu www.google.com www.howstuffworks.com www.hubble.nasa.gov www.hubblesite.org www.keckobservatory.org www.nasa.gov www.seti.org www.space.com www.spacetelescope.org www.stsci.edu www.wikipedia.org World Book Encyclopedia

Hope You Enjoyed the Slide Show!

Pictures by Parker J. E. CarteInformation by Parker J. E. CarteBackground by Parker J. E. Carte