The Hubble Space Telescope is a type of telescope that uses mirrors and lenses to capture and focus the light that it picks up from the various objects in our universe. Since its launch more than two decades ago, the telescope has provided a stunning array of images and tons of data on our galaxy and the universe outside of our Milky Way.
- The Hubble Telescope is 43.5 feet long and 14 feet wide. It weighs 24,500 pounds and cost $1.5 billion initially.
- The telescope was named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Hubble was the scientist who discovered there were galaxies beyond our own and helped confirm that the universe was expanding beyond our Milky Way. This provided other scientists a foundation for the Big Bang Theory.
- The Hubble Telescope receives its energy from the sun through two 25-foot solar panels while orbiting about 353 miles above Earth.
- The telescope is expected to remain operational until 2014, about 24 years after its launch. It will then be replaced with the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Hubble transmits about 120 gigabytes of science data every week. That's equal to about 3,600 feet (1,097 meters) of books on a shelf. The rapidly growing collection of pictures and data is stored on magneto-optical disks.
- Originally he HST was to have been bigger. NASA began seriously planning it in the mid-1970s. It was originally proposed to have a mirror diameter of 3m, but this was reduced to 2.4 m to save money.
- The HST doesn’t use as much power as you think. It uses about 2800 watts, while a typical kitchen kettle is rated at 2200 watts. Hubble gets its power from a couple of solar panels (each 2.6 x 7.1 m).
- The final colour images we all love are actually combinations of two or more black-and-white exposures made through coloured filters. During image processing the colours matching the filters are added to the picture.
- The Hubble Telescope travels around the Earth at a speed of 5 miles per second.
- It travels 353 miles above the Earth.
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