DIGGER27
In Memory Of
April 24 1990 the Hubble Telescope was launched into orbit.
The $1.5 billion dollar tool, (close to 3 billion dollars today), started sending back images and it wasn't long before scientists discovered the main mirror was ground down wrong around the edges so images were fuzzy and way under expectations.
About 3.5 years later on its first repair mission two new cameras were installed and the astronauts also fitted it with "glasses".
After that successful mission this thing has been shocking and surprising us ever since with the amazing images it has sent back to us on earth.
Plenty of places to view these pics, here is the best one...
http://hubblesite.org/images/gallery
This is the latest image, the Lagoon Nebula
This is probably the most famous image, the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula.
Not only images but a sorts of other discoveries and data have been added to our knowledge because this thing is up there....observing.
In orbit for more than two decades, Hubble has provided scientists with a greater understanding of the planets, galaxy, and the whole universe. Among the Most Amazing Hubble Discoveries and research projects:
Creating a 3-D map of mysterious dark matter.
Discovering Nix and Hydra, two moons of Pluto.
Helping determine the rate of the universe's expansion.
Discovering that nearly every major galaxy is anchored by a black hole.
Helping refine the age of the universe.
Recent Hubble discoveries
Here are some additional highlights of Hubble's discoveries for the past few years:
2013: Performed several observations of the spectacular Comet ISON before the comet broke up near the sun around Thanksgiving, examined an explosion on a distant star, discovered a new moon around Neptune and revealed details about the Milky Way's history based on images of 400 galaxies in various stages of evolution.
2014: Watched asteroid P/2013 R3 falling apart; observed a rare, close supernova called SN 2014J; found an extremely distant "cosmic magnifying glass"; and released an image – called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field – that showed the universe's evolution.
2015: Made fresh observations of the "Pillars of Creation" to see how they changed over time, captured the sharpest view ever of the Andromeda Galaxy, performed the best 3-D view of the deep universe, and observed a dark vortex on the planet Neptune. The year 2015 was also Hubble's 25th anniversary in space.
2016: Made close-up observations of Comet 252P/LINEAR), spotted the farthest galaxy then known, and showed that the universe likely has 10 times the number of galaxiespreviously thought to have existed.
2017: Found a stratosphere on a huge exoplanet, spotted ultrabright galaxies, watched the farthest known active comet, and accidentally discovered several asteroids when they snuck into observations of a galaxy cluster.
More super telescopes are planned for the future both land and space based.
In 2020 the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to be launched, much more powerful than Hubble and it is thought it might even be able to see as far back as the first galaxies formed after the big bang.
Still, the Hubble has nothing to be ashamed of and has been and will continue to be one of the most important successes NASA has achieved.
The $1.5 billion dollar tool, (close to 3 billion dollars today), started sending back images and it wasn't long before scientists discovered the main mirror was ground down wrong around the edges so images were fuzzy and way under expectations.
About 3.5 years later on its first repair mission two new cameras were installed and the astronauts also fitted it with "glasses".
After that successful mission this thing has been shocking and surprising us ever since with the amazing images it has sent back to us on earth.
Plenty of places to view these pics, here is the best one...
http://hubblesite.org/images/gallery
This is the latest image, the Lagoon Nebula
This is probably the most famous image, the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula.
Not only images but a sorts of other discoveries and data have been added to our knowledge because this thing is up there....observing.
In orbit for more than two decades, Hubble has provided scientists with a greater understanding of the planets, galaxy, and the whole universe. Among the Most Amazing Hubble Discoveries and research projects:
Creating a 3-D map of mysterious dark matter.
Discovering Nix and Hydra, two moons of Pluto.
Helping determine the rate of the universe's expansion.
Discovering that nearly every major galaxy is anchored by a black hole.
Helping refine the age of the universe.
Recent Hubble discoveries
Here are some additional highlights of Hubble's discoveries for the past few years:
2013: Performed several observations of the spectacular Comet ISON before the comet broke up near the sun around Thanksgiving, examined an explosion on a distant star, discovered a new moon around Neptune and revealed details about the Milky Way's history based on images of 400 galaxies in various stages of evolution.
2014: Watched asteroid P/2013 R3 falling apart; observed a rare, close supernova called SN 2014J; found an extremely distant "cosmic magnifying glass"; and released an image – called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field – that showed the universe's evolution.
2015: Made fresh observations of the "Pillars of Creation" to see how they changed over time, captured the sharpest view ever of the Andromeda Galaxy, performed the best 3-D view of the deep universe, and observed a dark vortex on the planet Neptune. The year 2015 was also Hubble's 25th anniversary in space.
2016: Made close-up observations of Comet 252P/LINEAR), spotted the farthest galaxy then known, and showed that the universe likely has 10 times the number of galaxiespreviously thought to have existed.
2017: Found a stratosphere on a huge exoplanet, spotted ultrabright galaxies, watched the farthest known active comet, and accidentally discovered several asteroids when they snuck into observations of a galaxy cluster.
More super telescopes are planned for the future both land and space based.
In 2020 the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to be launched, much more powerful than Hubble and it is thought it might even be able to see as far back as the first galaxies formed after the big bang.
Still, the Hubble has nothing to be ashamed of and has been and will continue to be one of the most important successes NASA has achieved.
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