hubble telescope

Astronoma

2022

We explain what the Hubble Space Telescope is, its history, functions and characteristics. Also, his main discoveries.

The name of this telescope pays tribute to the American astronomer Edwin Hubble.

What is the Hubble telescope?

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST, from Hubble Space Telescope, in English) is a device of observation astronomical located in the outer region of the atmosphere terrestrial in orbit about our planet 593 kilometers high.

This is the main telescope of the world, whose name pays tribute to the American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), considered the father of observational cosmology.

The Hubble Telescope's location on the edge of the planet gives it a prime position to observe the universe that surrounds us, free from the optical distortions of atmospheric gases, since they absorb certain electromagnetic wavelengths, present atmospheric turbulence.

Also, in the region lower in the atmosphere, clouds and other climatic phenomena interfere with vision. Thus, the Hubble is not affected by the inconveniences that afflict the rest of the large telescopes located in the land surface.

History of the Hubble telescope

The Hubble telescope was put into orbit on April 24, 1990, in a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency. Its mission was christened STS-31, and it was the culmination of more than 20 years of work and more than 2 million dollars of investment. Represented the greatest achievement in terms of observation astronomical humanity since the time of Galileo.

Initially, certain defects in the polish of the telescope's primary mirror caused the images taken to be out of focus. The worst thing about this is that they could only realize it when the telescope was already in orbit.

So it took three long years to correct this defect, by incorporating an optical correction system (COSTAR), through the trip of a manned shuttle on mission STS-61 (SM1).

Since then, five service missions have been carried out:

  • SM2. It was carried out in 1997 to replace some instruments and repair the thermal insulation.
  • SM3A and S3MB. Both were maintenance missions.
  • SM4. Carried out in 2009 to repair and add instruments to the telescope.

Despite its excellent results, many of the Hubble systems are already beginning to fail, which is why its replacement by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), whose launch date into space is 2020, has been announced.

Hubble telescope features

Hubble is 13.2 m long and 4.2 m in diameter.

Some of the main features of Hubble are:

  • It is located 593 km above the sea in a circular orbit around the Earth. Complete a land lap every 96 minutes.
  • The telescope has a weight total of 11 tons approximately, and measures 13.2 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter. His cost in 1990 it amounted to US $ 2.8 billion.
  • It is a reflecting telescope, with a primary mirror 2.4 meters in diameter. It also has a spectrograph and fine guidance sensors, as well as cameras, four motors, and specialized cooling equipment.
  • He gets his energy from two solar panels deployed to its sides, and stores it in batteries rechargeable, allowing it to function when the Earth outshines the Sun or when your panels are not properly oriented towards the light.
  • It has an optical resolution of 0.04 arc seconds.

What is the Hubble telescope for?

Like all telescopes, Hubble is used to observe outer space and get an idea of ​​the universe around us.

But in his case, the combination of powerful technical capabilities and a privileged location in space make him one of the main instruments available to the company. astronomy and cosmology to observe the universe and obtain information inaccessible by other means.

In fact, the Hubble findings have been significant from the start, to the point that they have prompted scientists to re-evaluate many of their assumptions about the universe.

Hubble telescope discoveries

Hubble photographed Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter.

Some of Hubble's main discoveries and contributions are:

  • In 1994, he discovered clear indications of the presence of black holes, in the galaxy M87 50 million light years away. Which contributed to confirm the existence of this astronomical phenomenon.
  • That same year he took Photographs high quality of the Kite Shoemaker-Levy 9 on its impact path towards Jupiter.
  • In 1995, he took several snapshots of a region near Ursa Major, for ten consecutive days, and which when put together make up the "Hubble deep field" with more than 3,000 different objects.
  • It has taken some 500,000 photographs of outer space, enough material to fill 1,420 optical discs of 6.66 GB each. It is estimated that more than a million celestial objects have been observed with Hubble.
  • Thanks to Hubble, it has been possible to study the Cepheids, a group of stars of variable luminosity in periodic terms, which was fundamental to determine the approximate age of the universe.
  • In 1995, his photographs of the orion nebula They made it possible to clarify the evolution of diffuse clouds that will later become stars, that is, they helped to understand how stars are born.

Hubble Telescope Photos

Photograph taken by an astronaut during a repair in 2009. Credit: NASA

Astronaut John Grunsfeld during a repair mission. Credit: NASA.

The Hubble telescope orbiting the Earth. Credit: NASA Astronauts Smith and Lee in 1997. Credit: NASA Hubble photograph of the galaxy UGC 2885. Credit: NASA, ESA and Holwerda. Northern lights photographed from Hubble. Credit: NASA.
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