Chapter One: Instrumentation 4
Chapter Two: Scientific Discoveries 6
Chapter Three: Future Space Telescope Technology 9
The Hubble Space Telescoped launched into orbit in 1990 has circled Earth 58,000 times, zoomed in on nearly 25,000 celestial objects, and has provided more than 270,000 images of everything from comets smashing into Jupiter to faint light of galaxies near the end of the observable universe. Such data and information has provided scientists with a whole new picture of the universe, including its contents and its age and origins. The Hubble Space Telescope is a sophisticated space exploration device that carries a variety of sophisticated instrumentation onboard, from spectrographs and infrared cameras to radio wave transmission devices and solar array panels. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided many new and exciting discoveries about the universe, broadening scientistÆs knowledge of things like the age of the universe, the origin of galaxies, and the nature of formerly mysterious planets like Pluto and never-before-detected celestial bodies like brown dwarfs. Despite the capabilities and discoveries of Hubble, the telescope is designed to serve only fifteen years and is limited. Its limitations are being eliminated in new designs of space telescopes for future use. The most exciting and most promising among these is NASAÆs NGST, scheduled for launch in 2007.
According to Ron Cowen (2003), over the past decade the Hubble Space Telescope has ôliterally changed our view of the universe,ö (1). Constructed in 1985, HubbleÆs launch 370 miles above Earth did not occur until April 25, 1990, in part due to technical difficulties and the crash of the space shuttle Challenger. HubbleÆs design permits astronomers to explore the universe beyond our atmosphere whose dust undermines the capability of conventional ground-based telescopes. In its first decade of use, Hubble has orbited Earth 5...