Since the beginning, mankind has always been fascinated with the structure of space. As time advances, we’ve found ways to see further and gain more knowledge about the space around us. We’ve advanced from the human eye, to telescopes, to even larger telescopes, to telescopes in space, which eliminates the image distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere.
In 1990, NASA launched their 12.5-ton Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit. The telescope was named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and featured an eight-foot-tall concave mirror with a two-foot-wide hole in the middle and a smaller convex of two-feet-tall. The telescope’s main function was to take light and reflect it off the concave mirror towards the concave mirror which then bounces the light to a focal point, where the image is put together and viewed by the observers on Earth.
Though this was the original plan, the telescope ended up returning images that were drastically lower quality than expected. This
…show more content…
problem resided with the shape of the main mirror. The curve of the main mirror had been slightly miss angled; enough so that the telescope couldn’t gather all the light to one focal point. Even with this set back, the Hubble provided significant discoveries of the universe; such as the Supernova 1987A, a supernova on the outer edge of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. After three years of distorted, but useful, images, NASA sent a repair team to install the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement to compensate for the mirror’s shape.
The second service mission took place in 1997 and equipped the Hubble with a Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and a Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to observe galaxies through infrared light. The next service mission was split up into two parts, 3A in 1999 and 3B in 2002, and involved replacing old parts, such as the six gyroscopes used to reposition the telescope, four smaller solar array panels that produce 30 percent more power, and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) which doubled its field of view and increased how fast it collected data. The Hubble’s final service mission launched in 2009 and installed the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to further increase the Hubble’s visual
powers. With its vastly superior field of vision compared to other telescopes, the Hubble has been able to use its 25+ year life span to change our views of the space around us. This telescope has given us vision into over three-thousand galaxies over a billion years old. Our views of supernovae also changed when the telescope showed us supernova 1997ff; giving us evidence that gravity slows down the universe’s expansion after the Big Bang.
I was born with an inherent fascination for all things celestial. Ever since I was young, I have been staring at the night sky trying to find constellations, or using my juvenile imagination to create my own. My efforts to find, view, and mentally catalogue everything the heavenly bodies have to offer has led me to employ some over-the-top measures, but the most extreme of them all might be the night I stayed awake through the wee hours of the morning to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower. Over the course of an entire year, the memory of this stupefying event is still as lucent and vivid as it was that very night so long ago.
Dyson, Marianne J. Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade. New York: Facts on File, 2007. 14+. Print.
In the article from the official NASA website, NASA gives a list of Hubble’s accomplishments, which gives the reader a comprehensive picture of Hubble’s importance. Hubble has not only given astronomers the most detailed images of outer-space in existence, but also taug...
Just recently a major discovery was found with the help of a device known as The Hubble Telescope. This telescope has just recently found what many astronomers believe to be a black hole, After being focuses on a star orbiting empty space. Several pictures of various radiation fluctuations and other diverse types of readings that could be read from that area which the black hole is suspected to be in.
The Orion Nebula is a spectacular sight. Consequently, it has been a preferred target of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) over recent years. The HST has provided a great deal of insight into the complicated process of star formation. In June of 1994, C.
Originally planned to launch in 1986, the Hubble Space Telescope has seen its share of problems. Starting with the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the Hubble's birth into space was delayed four years (Raven). On April 24, 1990, NASA put the telescope into orbit, only to discover that its primary mirror had a systematic aberration. To fix the problem, a mission in December 1993 set out on the space shuttle Endeavor.
Missing Figures A Brief History of Telescopes Although telescopes have been around for several hundred years, there has been great discrepancy as to who invented them first. Here is the author's opinion. Lippershey was a Dutch spectacle marker during the early 17th century (approximately 1600).
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 ...
The Very Large Telescope is more than just lenses and mirrors. In order for its four 8.2 meter
Since early human civilization, storytellers have been using science fact in order to create elaborate, entertaining, believable stories about the world outside our own. Often these would explain other-worldly theories. In the more modern perspective, one can see science fiction used more as a form of money making entertainment rather than the scientific form it took before its advancements. You can see this through the history of the development of the science fiction, present day use, and the futuristic aspect. It is also important to look at the science involved.
That space-bound telescope was launched in 2009 with the specific purpose of locating Earth-like planets outside the solar system. As he said during last week's flyby of Pluto, John Grunsfeld reminded the press that NASA's mission is to "innovate, discover, explore and inspire." He expressed certainty that "this discovery that is announced today is going to inspire all of you." Kepler-452b and its star—Kepler-452—are 1,400 light years away.
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.
With the help of satellites, we are able to keep a much more watchful eye on the planet we call home. We can analyze rainfall patterns, map the ocean floor, or watch the Earth’s crust move, among many other things. Satellites show us that technology has opened so many new doors, and given so much new, accurate data to fields that need constant, updated information. Through the power of the electromagnetic spectrum and these eyes in space, we are able to take science to places it has never been before.
Space: The Final Frontier. We have been trying to uncover the mysteries that shroud this great expanse and even our own Earth for as long as we have existed. Over 4 billion years ago, planet Earth formed and in the following eons, more and more evolutions have happened and subsequently more and more theoretical explanations have formed as to how they had occurred. Although we may not know the specifics of how Earth came to be, we do know the sequence of many happenings that took place. Knowing this will help us further our research in finding once and for all the true answer to the formation of Earth. Life on Earth, the sequence of certain events, and the various theories that have sprung up all either have helped to change Earth or to explain the Earth’s changes.
Space has always been a pivotal and utmost important subject for many years. In the past, scientists have made monumental advances in this field such as sending people into orbit and landing a man on the moon. Of course, this has only barely been explored and we still have a lot more to see of the ever-vast outer space. One of the most significant topics of all of science has only been touched and there’s still more to come.