The Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble is about the size of a school bus. It is 13 meters long, has a diameter of 4.3 meters and weighs 11 tonnes. On April 25, 1990, it was deployed at an altitude of 611 kilometers from the Space Shuttle "Discovery." Since then, it has orbited Earth, completing one orbit every 96 minutes. It is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose research focused on galaxies and the expansion of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope’s primary mirror was initially flawed. It was repaired several times and fitted with new technology. Each time, a Space Shuttle had to be launched. But Hubble has been one of the most successful space missions ever undertaken.

Using the telescope, scientists have gathered huge amounts of data and captured images of distant objects. It has observed individual stars, but especially galaxies and galaxy clusters millions or even billions of light-years from Earth. It has even discovered black holes. The most distant objects Hubble has detected date back to the early universe. The light from a galaxy cluster that Hubble was able to receive was emitted about 13.2 billion years ago. Since the universe has expanded in the meantime, these objects are now more than 30 billion light-years away.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021. It is designed primarily to detect infrared radiation emitted by objects in space. The telescope orbits the Sun about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It takes exactly as long to orbit the Sun as Earth does.

You can see some of Hubble’s most beautiful images by clicking on the next picture. This will take you to a picture gallery from BR WISSEN.