The Hubble Telescope

“A Hubble Space Telescope photograph of the universe evokes far more awe for creation than light streaming through a stained glass window in a cathedral.” We know more about our universe than we ever have thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope’s clear crisp photos of objects far away in space. “Earth’s atmosphere alters and blocks the light that comes from space. Hubble orbits above Earth’s atmosphere, which gives it a better view of the universe than telescopes have at ground level.” (NASA, 2009). With these photos, the Hubble Telescope has discovered many different quasars, protoplanetary disks, gamma bursts, and many more objects. Because of Hubble’s ability to see far into space, it is pushing astronomers to discover more, see even further, and study the unknowns of
space.
Named after the famous astronomer, Edwin Hubble, the Hubble Space Telescope has gathered millions of data points and observations that has helped astronomers all over the nation for 26 years, and it is still going
strong.

Edwin Hubble is one of the greatest modern astronomers ever to live. He was born in 1889, and he grew up mostly in Chicago. He was an athlete, but he was also interested in academics. He was offered a scholarship to go to the Chicago University, where he was a lab assistant working on physics. After Chicago, he enrolled in the University of Oxford, where he studied law philosophy. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in jurisprudence. After his time in Oxford, Hubble returned to Chicago, where he studied astronomy. A little while after, California’s Mount Wilson observatory took notice, and recruited him to complete the construction of the Hooker Telescope. “Before beginning the new position—which he excitedly accepted—Hubble completed a doctorate in astronomy, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and served a tour of duty in World War I.” (Biography.com Editors, 2016). After the Army, Hubble went straight back to Mount Wilson where he landed a job. During his time there, he discovered other galaxies, collections of dust, gas, and stars all strung together by gravity, existed other than the Milky Way. ¨There hadbeen no clear idea of the Milky Way's size at the time, and through his research, Hubble was able to estimate that the Andromeda Nebula was nearly 900,000 light years away from the Milky Way, thus it had to be its own galaxy.¨ (Biography.com Editors, 2016). But, Hubble even made more discoveries. ¨In 1929 he made another startling find - all galaxies seemed to be receding from us with velocities that increased in proportion to their distance from us - a relationship now known as Hubble's Law.¨ (ESA, 2012). Hubble also came up with the Red Shift Theory. This theory supports the idea that the universe is expanding because distant stars appear red. When these distant objects get further away, their light waves get longer and longer. These light waves are on the red end of the light spectrum, which makes them appear red. So, we know today that if a distant object is getting redder, then it is moving away from the earth. So, thanks to Edwin Hubble’s many discoveries, astronomers today can draw better conclusions about the universe. Just like the telescope he was named after, Hubble would go on and make hundreds of discoveries for the next generation to ponder upon. In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into space. The Hubble Telescope is a telescope that orbits earth. It has a position above the atmosphere, which distorts light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that far surpases that of ground based telescopes. To date, Hubble has made 1.2 million scientific observations that have helped astronomers and scientists around the world. The telescope is about as long as a school bus, and it weighs as much as a large elephant. “Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 14,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.” (NASA 2016). Hubble travels at five miles per second, which is equivalent to traveling from Los Angeles to Atlanta in 10 minutes. Since 1990, Hubble has traveled more than 3 billion miles. This telescope has not only found amazing discoveries, but has traveled great distances as well. We know what this telescope is, but why would NASA launch it into space? The telescope was launched because Lyman Spitzer (pictured) had the idea of launching a telescope above earth’s atmosphere, so scientists could get the clearest pictures possible. The atmosphere distorts light, and it makes pictures of faraway objects fuzzy and unclear. So, in 1990, NASA made Spitzer’s dream a reality. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space. Many call Spitzer the pioneer of space telescopes because he originally had the idea of space telescopes. If Lyman Spitzer saw all the discoveries and implications that Hubble has made today, his mind would be blown.

From distant quasars, humongous black holes, and colorful galaxies, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered many different objects in our universe. “Scientists using Hubble have also been able to track seasonal changes on planets. Hubble tracked Jupiter’s weather, for example, allowing researchers to see color changes in bands of clouds in the huge gas giant’s atmosphere.” (Mashable, 2015). By making discoveries like this, Hubble is helping scientists learn more about our complex universe one step at a time. “Researchers now know that the universe is about 13.7 billion-years-old thanks to research performed using Hubble's data.” (Mashable, 2015). Before this discovery, scientists thought the universe was anywhere from 10-20 billion years old. Thanks to Hubble, we have narrowed that range down, so we know the close to exact age of our universe. Also, by making this discovery, cosmologists can focus on how the universe was created, or big bang. The big bang theory is “a cosmological theory holding that the universe originated approximately 20 billion years ago from the violent explosion of a very small agglomeration of matter of extremely high density and temperature.” (Farlex, 2005). Another important discovery by Hubble is discovering dark matter. “By analyzing the distortions caused by dark matter's gravity on light from distant galaxies, Hubble helped construct the largest scale 3-D maps scientists have of where dark matter is distributed in the universe.” (Space, 2011). The Hubble Telescope is helping shape the future with it’s discoveries, but it is up to the next generation’s scientists to take these discoveries and run with them. What can the Hubble Telescope discover next? How will the new discoveries impact scientists studies?

Hubble may have discovered many great things, but how do those discoveries impact us as humans in 2016?