Hubble Telescope Photos Images from NASA Uncover Space Mysteries

It was launched April 24, 1990, and NASA celebrated its 17th birthday recently with the following stats: “800,000 observations, 500,000 images and 100,000 trips around the Earth.” The main benefits of putting a telescope in orbit are that it’s images are not distorted by the Earth’s atmosphere, it is not affected by light pollution and it can observe frequencies of light that cannot be observed well on the Earth’s surface (f.ex. Ultra-violet light, because it is absorbed by the ozone layer).

Credit: NASA and the European Space Agency, Public Domain image.
Hubble’s mirror has a collecting area of 4.2 square meters (46 square feet) and a diameter of 2.4 meters (94 inches). It can observe on the following wavelength: Optical, ultraviolet, near-infrared.

Improvement in Hubble images after the first service mission. Credit: NASA/ESA.
The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to be regularly serviced. The first service mission December 1993 allowed the Space Shuttle Endeavour crew to upgrade Hubble as well as boost its orbit. As you can see from the picture above, the upgrade was worth it: The result was much sharper images.
There was at least 3 other servicing missions (see here) but they had less dramatic results than the first one.
The impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on astronomy, physics and science in general is immense: Over 4,000 scientific papers based on Hubble data were published in peer reviewed journals.

 

 

 Yesterday’s Google Doodle featured the 20th anniversary of the launching of the space telescope named “Hubble Telescope” which was carried into orbit in April 23, 1990 and was named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Accordingly, Hubble Telescope

 

In March of 1994, the National Aeronautic Association announced that its 1993 Robert J. Collier Trophy would be awarded to the NASA Hubble Space Telescope Recovery Team "for outstanding leadership, intrepidity, and the renewal of public faith in America's space program by the successful orbital recovery and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope." Representing the more than 1,200 men and women directly involved in the mission, the seven-person astronaut crew of Space Shuttle Mission STS-61 and four ground managers were named as the recipients. It was truly, by all assessments of the participants and the observers and in the language of the Collier award, "the greatest achievement."
The Hubble Space Telescope had taken longer to build and launch than any other NASA spacecraft, including Apollo.