Hubble Telescope Research Paper

Words: 821
Pages: 4

Named after the famous astronomer, Edwin Hubble, the Hubble telescope is a low Earth orbit telescope that is capable of taking pictures of what we know as the outer limits of the universe. Launched on April 24th, 1990, it is six inches shorter than a school bus (43.5 feet) and weighed 24 490 lbs at launch. Hubble was armed with a main mirror measuring at 7.9 ft, and an array of other optic systems. Between 1994 and 2002, four space shuttles were launched to perform upgrades and maintenance on Hubble to give it the range it has today of 15 billion light years. Producing breath-taking images, like the ones below.

Butterfly Nebula. A star at the middle has exploded and is releasing its gases.

Source: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

A picture of the eXtreme Deep Field view taken by Hubble.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/xdf.html
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This was the first step towards Hubble. Spitzer pushed for the development of a space telescope and in 1965 Spitzer was appointed to be the head of the committee to start the development of defining scientific objectives for a large space telescope. In 1968, plans were made to launch a Large Space Telescope (LST) in 1979. This would require trained astronauts and a reusable space shuttle for maintaining and upgrading the telescope. After a fight for an approved budget of $36 million, the LST projected was in full steam but the launch date was pushed back to 1983. Although the telescope was not launched in 1983, in 83’ the telescope was given the name, The Hubble