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MISSION NAME:
Hubble Space Telescope |
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FINDS PLANETS USING:
Transit method, others |
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CURRENT STATUS:
In operation |
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| The Hubble Space Telescope orbits above the Earth |
Famous for its dazzling pictures of galaxies and nebulae, the Hubble Space Telescope has also been an important tool for planet hunters. The telescope has been used to look for the telltale wobbles of stars that indicate the presence of planets as well as the dimming of stars that occur when their planets pass in front of them.
Hubble was used to find 16 extrasolar planet candidates during the SWEEPS (Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search) survey, which analyzed nearly 200,000 stars close in the crowded center of the galaxy. SWEEPS served as a testing ground for technology currently being used in the ESA's COROT and NASA's Kepler planet-finding mission.
Launched in 1990, Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. Its location above the Earth's atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.
