Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 20 Years In Space  Hubble Space Telescope |
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) celebrates its 20th anniversary on Saturday and on the occasion NASA has also released a new photograph from the orbiting observatory.
The HST was not the first telescope to roam in space, but certainly, it was one of the largest and most popular telescopes ever. This has served as an important research tool in astrophysics and has sent numerous scintillating images of the universe.
However, the Hubble Space Telescope is to be phased out in 2014.
The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin P Hubble who was a pioneer astronomer himself. He had spoken prominently on Black Holes and the Universe.
The telescope was launched into low Earth orbit on April 24, 1990. It can be seen by naked eye as a star-like object moving from West to East due to its large size. It can reach a maximum magnitude of 2 mag.
Till now, the space tool has taken about 900,000 photographs of different celestial objects. It has also sent back important information about black holes, expanding universe and planetary formation.
The Hubble is also credited with the detection of the first organic molecule in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star.
NASA scientists repaired the telescope through Atlantis’ repair mission in May. And hence, it is expected to be operational for the next four to five years.
“Without a doubt, Hubble telescope is a scientific instrument, the most recognized and have won the largest number of successful scientific history,” says Ed Weiller, a senior administrator at NASA.
“Most of us humans ... will never travel physically to some of the exotic places that we see in Hubble,” said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator in an interview earlier this year.
“What Hubble has done is enabled our hearts, our minds, our spirits to travel throughout the solar system even billions of light years to the very beginning of time,” said Weiler.
If you are a Hubble fan, share your thoughts via ‘Messages to Hubble’ page on http://hubblesite.org.
