What is Hubble?
Hubble is one of the world's most amazing telescopes. It's about as long as a school bus and weighs about as much as three elephants. It has taken breathtaking pictures of the universe, but the telescope that people are now working hard to save was at first considered a dud. Until it got glasses!
Hubble was put into orbit 360 miles above Earth in 1990. But the telescope's main mirror had a flaw in it and its views were out of focus. In 1993 astronauts aboard a space shuttle installed corrective lenses on Hubble during an 11-day repair mission.
The Cone Nebula as seen by Hubble's advanced camera.
(Nasa Via Reuters)
|
|
Since then, Hubble has helped scientists discover:
• the age of the universe -- between 12 billion and 14 billion years;
• dust disks that surround young stars;
• 3,000 galaxies, including some that are 10 billion years old;
• how quickly the universe is expanding.
