"From the dawn of humankind to a mere 400 years ago, all that we knew about our universe came through observations with the naked eye. Then Galileo turned his telescope toward the heavens in 1610. The world was in for an awakening.
Saturn, we learned, had rings. Jupiter had moons. That nebulous patch across the center of the sky called the Milky Way was not a cloud but a collection of countless stars. Within but a few years, our notion of the natural world would be forever changed. A scientific and societal revolution quickly ensued.
Edwin Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope is named in honor of astronomer Edwin Hubble.
More on Dr. Hubble
In the centuries that followed, telescopes grew in size and complexity and, of course, power. They were placed far from city lights and as far above the haze of the atmosphere as possible. Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Telescope is named, used the largest telescope of his day in the 1920s at the Mt. Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, Calif., to discover galaxies beyond our own.
Hubble, the observatory, is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space, the ultimate mountaintop. Above the distortion of the atmosphere, far far above rain clouds and light pollution, Hubble has an unobstructed view of the universe. Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system.
Hubble's launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 25 years of operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.
Hubble Space Telescope Facts
NASA named the world's first space-based optical telescope after American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble (1889 -- 1953). Dr. Hubble confirmed an "expanding" universe, which provided the foundation for the big-bang theory.
Mission
Launch: April 24, 1990, from space shuttle Discovery (STS-31)
Deployment: April 25, 1990
First Image: May 20, 1990: Star cluster NGC 3532
Servicing Mission 1 (STS-61): December 1993
Servicing Mission 2 (STS-82): February 1997
Servicing Mission 3A (STS-103): December 1999
Servicing Mission 3B (STS-109): February 2002
Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125): May 2009
Size
Length: 43.5 feet (13.2 m)
Weight: At Launch: about 24,000 pounds (10,886 kg)
Post SM4: about 27,000 pounds (12,247 kg)
Maximum Diameter: 14 feet (4.2 m)
Spaceflight Statistics
?Low Earth Orbit: Altitude of 340 miles (295 nautical miles, or 547 km), inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator
Time to Complete One Orbit: about 95 minutes
Speed: about 17,000 mph (27,300 kph)
Optical Capabilities
Sensitivity to Light: Ultraviolet through Infrared (115–2500 nanometers)
Hubble's Mirrors
Primary Mirror Diameter: 94.5 inches (2.4 m)
Primary Mirror Weight: 1,825 pounds (828 kg)
Secondary Mirror Diameter: 12 inches (0.3 m)
Secondary Mirror Weight: 27.4 pounds (12.3 kg)
Pointing Accuracy
In order to take images of distant, faint objects, Hubble must be extremely steady and accurate. The telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating more than 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 1 mile.
Data Statistics
Hubble transmits about 150 gigabits of raw science data every week.
Power Needs
Energy Source: The Sun
Mechanism: Two 25-foot solar panels
Power Generation (in Sunlight): about 5,500 watts
Power Usage (Average): about 2,100 watts
Power Storage
Batteries: 6 nickel-hydrogen (NiH)
Storage Capacity: Equal to about 22 average car batteries
Did you know...
Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990.
Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 15,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built. Those papers have been cited in other papers 738,000 times.
Hubble does not travel to stars, planets or galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at about 17,000 mph.
Hubble has circled Earth and gone more than 4 billion miles along a circular low earth orbit currently about 340 miles in altitude.
Hubble has no thrusters. To change angles, it uses Newton’s third law by spinning its wheels in the opposite direction. It turns at about the speed of a minute hand on a clock, taking 15 minutes to turn 90 degrees.
Hubble has the pointing accuracy of .007 arcseconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam on President Roosevelt’s head on a dime about 200 miles away.
Outside the haze of our atmosphere, it can see astronomical objects with an angular size of 0.05 arcseconds, which is like seeing a pair of fireflies in Tokyo that are less than 10 feet apart from Washington, DC.
Due to the combination of optics and sensitive detectors and with no atmosphere to interfere with the light reaching it, Hubble can spot a night light on the surface of the Moon from Earth.
Hubble has peered back into the very distant past, to locations more than 13.4 billion light-years from Earth.
Hubble generates about 10 terabytes of new data per year. The total archive is currently over 150 TB in size.
Hubble weighed about 24,000 pounds at launch but if returned to Earth today would weigh about 27,000 pounds — on the order of two full-grown African elephants.
Hubble's primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across. It was so finely polished that if you scaled it to be the diameter of the Earth, you would not find a bump more than 6 inches tall.
Hubble is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long — the length of a large school bus.
For Hubble achievements, please see:
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