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The Hubble Space Telescope — a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) — was launched in its orbit 552 km above Earth on April 24, 1990 by the space shuttle Discovery. It has provided breathtaking images, produced fundamental discoveries and brought about a paradigm shift in our understanding of the universe. Hubble has unlocked the wonders of the universe and “placed our world into a context of 100 billion stars in 100 billion galaxies.”
If the spotting of the Hubble variable number one, or V1 star in 1923 in the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy permanently altered the course of modern astronomy, the Hubble Telescope has done it even more dramatically.
The Hubble, which has so far travelled more than 3 billion miles, has made more than 1.2 million observations since 1990 by completing an orbit around the Earth every 97 minutes at a speed of about 8 km per second.
A household name today, it was an instrument that “much of the astronomical community didn’t want!” Worse, it almost turned out to be a dud soon after the launch.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, a snapshot of the famous “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula was taken last year. The first time the “Pillars of Creation” was snapped was in 1995. Hubble’s instruments that have been upgraded during the 19 years after the original image was taken helped astronomers see more details in the image than was previously possible.
25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope - The Hindu
