The Hubble Telescope Ashley Field. Hubble Facts The Hubble Telescope was launched into low Earth...

The Hubble Telescope

Ashley Field

Hubble Facts• The Hubble Telescope was launched into low

Earth orbit in 1990

• Four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra

• Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble

• Launched by Space Shuttle Discovery

• The only telescope designed to be serviced by astronauts

• As of Hubble’s 24th anniversary in April 2014, Hubble observations have produced more than 100 terabytes of data.

• Its scientific successor, the James Webb Space

Telescope is scheduled for launch in 2018

Communicating with Hubble

• A quartet of antennae on the telescope sends and receives information between Hubble and the Flight Operations Team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

• Engineers use satellites to communicate with the telescope, giving it directions and commands

• The telescope has 2 main computers and a number of smaller systems

Sources

• http://hubblesite.org/• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubbl

e/story/#.VOZev1PF-Ni• http://web.archive.org/web/200805242117

36/http://hubble.nasa.gov/overview/conception-part1.php