Hubble Telescope Details

San Francisco (GaeaTimes.com) - The Hubble Telescope or Hubble Space Telescope has now completed two decades in space today. In these twenty years, it has served us with stunning images which had deep effect on our understanding of the universe. We knew how the stars are formed but before Hubble, there was no way to get a closer look at the action.

The telescope is named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble and is a collaboration between NASA and European Space Agency. It was carried into orbit by a space shuttle in April, 1990. It is a well known by both public and the researchers for its detailed visible light images with excellent sharpness.

Bit the images were not razor sharp right from the first images that it captured. When it was launched by Space Shuttle Discovery, the images it captured was distorted as the mirror was not grounded properly. A servicing mission in 1993 fixed the problem by installing corrective lenses. Afterwards, it has gone through five servicing missions which increased its power repeatedly.

It is reported that Hubble has captured more than 300,000 celestial bodies and there is an archive of more than 500,000 images. Some of its images captured earlier this year surprised astronomers as it showed Pluto’s colors were changing and its ice sheets are shifting.

The Hubble is planned to be replaced by a larger space telescope. It is named James Webb space telescope and has a planned launch date in 2014. It has a much larger mirror than the Hubble Telescope which means it can capture more faint images coming from further distance spaces.