The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most amazing machines in orbit right now. In 1946, an astrophysicist named Dr. Lyman Spitzer proposed that a telescope in space would reveal better and clearer images that are even far from earth than any ground telescope. This idea was very extravagant because no one had yet launched a rocket into outer space. As the US space program excelled quickly over the early years, Spitzer lobbied NASA and Congress to develop a space telescope. In 1975, the European Space Agency and NASA began to develop the telescope that would change astronomy for ever. In 1977, Congress approved funding for the development of the space telescope and NASA named Lockheed Martin Aerospace Company as the prime contractor to oversee its construction. In 1983, the telescope was finished and was named after Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer whose observations of variable stars in distant galaxies confirmed that the universe was expanding and gave support to the "Big Bang" theory.
The Hubble Telescope took a total of eight years to develop. It held five scientific instruments, had more than 400,000 parts, and had 26,000 miles of electrical wiring. The Hubble Telescope was reported to be 50 times more sensitive than ground-based telescopes with 10 times better resolution. After a long delay due to the Challenger disaster, the Hubble Telescope went into orbit in 1990. After being deployed, astronomers immediately found out that the telescope could not be focused. They found the problem and discovered that the primary mirror had been ground to a wrong dimension at the Perker-Elmer Corporation's factory. Although the defect in the mirror was less than one-fifth the size of a human hair, it was enough for th...
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...rget. When each FGS finds a guide star, it locks on to it and feeds information back to the Hubble Telescope steering system to keep that guided star in its field. While two FGS are steering the telescope, the other one makes astrometric measurements or the stars position. Astrometric measurements are important for detecting planets because orbiting planets cause the parent stars to wobble in their motion across the sky.
Although the Hubble Space Telescope is very important to us, it is very expensive to repair and very costly to keep up in the sky. NASA and the government want to take the Hubble Telescope down and they want to make another one that is more efficient and less expensive to operate. In the near future, I believe the Hubble Telescope will remain in the sky, but scientists should start developing a new telescope that will be better than the Hubble.
In the mid-nineteenth century, new developments in astronomy were expanding the field at an fast and exciting rate. The Mitchells were aware that the King of Denmark awarded a gold metal to anyone who discovered a "telescopic" comet. No one in America had won that award yet.
lifetime. Some of Edwin Hubble's greatest accomplishments were: Edwin Hubble proposed a classification system for nebulae, which are fuzzy little patches of light that are up in the sky. He discovered a variable star, called the Cepheid. It is located in the Andromeda Nebulae. Edwin Hubble settled decisively the question of the nature of the galaxies. Edwin Hubble's distribution of galaxies was determined to be homogeneous in distance. Edwin wanted to classify the galaxies according to their content, distance, shape, and pattern of brightness. By observing redshifts Edwin saw that galaxies were moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them (this is known as Hubble's Law).
The Hubble space telescope is a deep space imager used by NASA to explore space. It collects light and magnifies images, and gives Astronomers the most detailed images known to man. Hubble has been at work since April 25, 1990, and celebrated its 20th anniversary in orbit April 24, 2010. Twenty years in service, and still being the leading source for space news says a lot about Hubble's overall longevity and productiveness. Over 6000 scientific articles have been published based on Hubble data, with some of its discoveries being so significant that NASA would have needed multiple satellite missions to accomplish the same results. Its importance to me is based on my lifelong interest in astronomy, and the galaxy we live in. It's importance to others, such as NASA and Astronomers around the world, is due to the fact that Hubble is currently the leading source for new information and ground-breaking discoveries when it comes to deep space, But after a stalled launch in 1985, 5 repair missions since it's beginning, and billions of dollars in funding, I asked myself: Is Hubble worth it? As part of my research for this question I read two article related to the Hubble space telescope: An article from NASA’s official website titled ‘Hubble: The Essentials’ and an article from the New York Times titled ‘Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost’ by Stephen J. Dubner. Both articles played a direct part in my question and its answer: What does Hubble do? And is it worth the cost?
The first observatory in the world was built in 825 in Baghdad (Iraq). Many followed years later in cities like Istanbul (Turkey), Rayy (Iran), Samarkand (Uzbekistan)and Tabriz (Iran). But in these observatories they didn’t only research about astronomy. They worked on subjects like chemistry, physics and medicine.
As modern technology improves, the technology of exploration of the universe improves either. People had been wondering whether humans can live in Mars and Moon. NASA, the biggest organization in the world that examines about the universe. It had decided to make a shuttle to investigate the Mars.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in space weighing 24,500 lbs. NASA launched Hubble in 1990, "Hubble is named after Edwin P. Hubble, He was an astronomer"(Rosario). Hubble travels around the Earth taking pictures of planets, stars, and galaxies. "It has seen stars being born and stars die, and it has seen galaxies that are trillions of miles away." Scientists have learned a lot about space from Hubble pictures (Dunbar).
Nancy Grace Roman has researched fascinating phenomena, made amazing discoveries, and started several projects that have changed the way the field of astronomy works. In 1955 as one of her first major research projects, Dr. Roman was part of a team that documented new “spectral types photoelectric magnitudes and colors and spectroscopic parallaxes for about 600 high-velocity stars.” (Roman, 1955, p. 195) Dr. Nancy Grace Roman was also the one who discovered that stars similar to the earth’s sun demonstrated subtle differences from other stars in the same class. (Roman, 2013, p. 2) This discovery led into her research in radio astronomy, where she also determined that Sagittarius A was a composite source instead of the galactic center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Dr. Roman did this by comparing her own measurements of the galactic center region that she acquired using radar with her colleague’s measurements, that he obtained using a shorter wavelength. (Roman, 2013, p. 3) But perhaps Dr. Roman’s greatest known accomplishment as an astronomer is her work with the Hubble Telescope project. During her time at NASA, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman was in charge of the early planning and development of the Hubble Telescope. (Roman, n.d.) Roman also created the program structure for the project, as well as convince Congress to approve of the program and its funding. (Roman,
At Goddard Space Center scientists have been working have been working on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is the most largest and complex project NASA has launched. Astronauts and the public have high expectations on this project. The telescope will be able to study when the earliest galaxies formed, the birth of stars and the formation of their solar systems, atmospheres of planets outside our solar system. Many things can go bad during the launch and unlike The Hubble Telescope the JWST will be too far away from Earth to fix if any difficulties happen. A goal is to see infrared light and we can’t see that on Earth because Earth’s atmosphere blocks it by the time it gets to Earth. Everything it needs to work correctly and collect
Once NASA was given the right to start constructing The Hubble Space Telescope, or paraphrased as the HST, it cost $1.5 billion dollars to construct. The length of this massive piece of technology is 43.5ft long( 13.2m). The HST has a diameter of 14ft(4.2m) that allows it to store its hard drives, processors and other fragile technical organs inside the telescope. With its metal base, solar panels, mirrors and etc. protecting the telescopes fragile insides from floating space debris, the HST weighs in at 24,500 pounds, 11,110Kg(“The Telescope”).
Ernst Stuhlinger, the then-associate director of science at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, questioning the reasonability of the large investment in space exploration. In Stuhlinger’s letter in reply, he told a thought-provoking story:400 years ago, a benign count gave a large part of his income to the poor in his town. One day he began to support a strange man, who mounted polished small pieces of glass in a tube to look at very small objects. The angry townspeople blamed him for wasting money, but the count insisted on supporting the “strange” man. Finally, the count’s kindness led to the birth of microscope, the most powerful tool to study bacteria and help to cure diseases. (Ernst Stuhlinger) When analogizing the story to space exploration, we can firmly believe that something great will come out and pay back the investment, benefiting the entire
NASA had originally wanted to launch the Hubble in 1983 but because of multiple program problems it was delayed. The Hubble’s imagining mirror was completed in 1981 but the rest of the optical assembly was not finished until 1984. Finally in December of ...
Many people think that space exploration is not worth the cost. However, it is worth the cost, without space exploration, the Dawn mission would not be possible. The Dawn mission is a satellite that it currently in orbit and is trying to discover how our solar system was formed. It is helpful to know this information because, we don’t know why each planet is how it is. There are many different different reasons why humans can benefit from space research.
Since the beginning of early times, humans have always had a great fascination with space. The invention of the telescope helped to see the stars, but in order to conduct real research, we had to wait until the invention of the rocket. Humans were finally able to enter space by the 1900s, due to the invention of the rocket, but rockets were only used to visit and leave. Scientists wanted a more permanent station to conduct experiments that could only be done in space. NASA engineers solved this problem with the addition of the The International Space Station, also known as the ISS. With support coming from nearly every corner of the world, the ISS has become a recognizable object worldwide, representing astronomy and space research. The space station has since became a stronghold for scientific research in outer space, as well as one of the most important research facilities in the milky-way galaxy.
A telescope is a device used to magnify distant objects. Telescopes can be used to look at things on earth or at objects in space. The telescopes for use on the earth are known as terrestrial telescopes and the telescopes for looking into space are known as astronomical telescopes.
The modern day space environment is no longer a mystery to humans. Yuri Gagarin of Russia was the first person to experience space adventure in 1961. Since then, technological advances have enabled space exploration, with new discoveries being made from time to time. Scientists have significantly contributed to the development of space tourism. Noteworthy inventions by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have transformed human life through increasing accessibility to space. The agency has made it possible for astronauts to go to the moon and also to walk around planet Mars with robotic automobiles. The invention of the tri-axis control design has had a significant influence on modern space explorations, helping astronauts to effectively focus their satellites on the target. This has been important in increasing efficiency and precision in astronomical discoveries (Birchard, 2003).