Facts about Hubble Space Telescope

When we observe the celestial bodies from the Earth through a telescope, the atmosphere of the Earth tends to deform the images. The atmosphere also prevents certain radiations, like ultraviolet and gamma rays, from reaching the Earth. To get rid of such problems, astronomers first suggested the need for a space telescope, way back in 1923. A space telescope is a telescope placed above the Earth's atmosphere, which is capable of making observations of very distant objects in space, without any interference from the atmosphere.

The Hubble Space Telescope is one such space telescope that has revolutionized the study of astronomy. Here are some interesting facts about the Hubble Telescope:

• The Hubble Space Telescope is named after the famous American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who discovered the theory of expansion of the universe.
• The telescope was launched into the Earth's orbit with the help of Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990.
• It was a collaborative venture of NASA (National Aeronautics Space Administration) and European Space Agency (ESA).
• Initially, the proposed year for the launch of Hubble was 1983, but it got delayed owing to certain technical problems, fund problems, etc.
• The US Congress had sanctioned a sum of 36,000,000 dollars for the project of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1978, but this amount of money was not sufficient for the project. So, NASA decided to team up with European Space Agency. ESA partially funded the project and also supplied some of the instruments for the telescope.
• The Hubble runs on solar power. It is fitted with solar cells that convert the solar energy into electrical energy. There are also batteries that store some of the electricity to keep the telescope working, when it is within the Earth's shadow and the sunlight is blocked.
• The Hubble finishes one complete rotation around the Earth, in just 97 minutes, with a speed of 5 miles per second.
• When the telescope moves, its mirror captures various types of rays and directs them towards its varied instruments. Then, these instruments carry out their functions, together or individually, to provide the most accurate information of their observations.
• The special feature of the images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, is that they do not have any background light. As a result, the images look very sharp and distinct.
• The images sent by Hubble have helped astronomers to unravel several mysteries regarding the universe. It has helped to evaluate the age of the universe more accurately and to confirm the presence of black holes in the galaxies close to the Earth.
• The Hubble Space Telescope is the only one of its kind designed in a manner that it can even be repaired in space by astronauts. So far, it has been repaired four times. After its launch, scientists found that the shape of the primary mirror of the Hubble was incorrect. In the first mission, the flaw of the mirror was rectified. In the subsequent three missions, some subsystems were repaired and some of the instruments were replaced with improved versions.
• The Hubble Telescope can be used by anyone irrespective of one's nationality. Due to its high precision level, astronomers from all over the world compete to get a chance to use the telescope. Every year, thousands of proposals are reviewed and around 200 are chosen for their observations.

The Hubble is one of the largest space telescopes and is capable of carrying out various types of tasks. It is a very successful and long-running scientific mission of NASA.