Introduction
From the dawn of humankind to a mere 400 years ago, all that we knew about our universe came through observations with the naked eye. Then Galileo turned his telescope toward the heavens in 1610. The world was in for an awakening.
Saturn, we learned, had rings. Jupiter had moons. That nebulous patch across the center of the sky called the Milky Way was not a cloud but a collection of countless stars. Within but a few years, our notion of the natural world would be forever changed. A scientific and societal revolution quickly ensued.
In the centuries that followed, telescopes grew in size and complexity and, of course, power. They were placed far from city lights and as far above the haze of the atmosphere as possible. Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Telescope is named, used the largest telescope of his day in the 1920's at the Mt. Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California, to discover galaxies beyond our own.
Hubble, the observatory, is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space, the ultimate mountaintop. Above the distortion of the atmosphere, far far above rain clouds and light pollution, Hubble has an unobstructed view of the universe. Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system.
From far to near, from the earliest moments in the universe to current sandstorms on the surface of Mars... Hubble's launching in 1990 marks the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. Our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.
Image credit: STScI.
Saturn, we learned, had rings. Jupiter had moons. That nebulous patch across the center of the sky called the Milky Way was not a cloud but a collection of countless stars. Within but a few years, our notion of the natural world would be forever changed. A scientific and societal revolution quickly ensued.
In the centuries that followed, telescopes grew in size and complexity and, of course, power. They were placed far from city lights and as far above the haze of the atmosphere as possible. Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Telescope is named, used the largest telescope of his day in the 1920's at the Mt. Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California, to discover galaxies beyond our own.
Hubble, the observatory, is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space, the ultimate mountaintop. Above the distortion of the atmosphere, far far above rain clouds and light pollution, Hubble has an unobstructed view of the universe. Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system.
From far to near, from the earliest moments in the universe to current sandstorms on the surface of Mars... Hubble's launching in 1990 marks the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. Our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.
Image credit: STScI.
History of Hubble
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The Hubble Story
A detailed look at the Hubble Space Telescope from idea to conception to blast off into space. Learn all about the project from its infancy to the maturing telescope it was when launched over 16 years ago.
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Historical Milestones of the Hubble Project
Explore the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and learn about the important dates in history that has contributed to the success of the telescope.
Mission Factoids
The telescope's 17 years' worth of observations have produced more than 30 terabytes of data, equal to about 25 percent of the information stored in the Library of Congress.
Hubble weighs 24,500 pounds -- as much as two full-grown elephants.
Hubble's primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across -- taller than retired NBA player Gheorghe Muresan, who is 2.3 meters (7 feet, 7 inches) tall. Muresan is the tallest man ever to play in the NBA.
During its lifetime Hubble has made about 800,000 observations and snapped about 500,000 images of more than 25,000 celestial objects.
Hubble is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long -- the length of a large school bus.
Hubble does not travel to stars, planets and galaxies. It snaps pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at 17,500 mph. The telescope has made just more than 100,000 trips around our planet, racking up about 2.4 billion miles. That mileage is slightly more than a round-trip between Earth and Saturn.
Each day the orbiting observatory generates about 10 gigabytes of data, enough information to fill the hard drive of a typical home computer in two weeks.
The Hubble archive sends about 66 gigabytes of data each day to astronomers around the world.
Astronomers using Hubble data have published nearly 7,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.
About 4,000 astronomers from all over the world have used the telescope to probe the universe.