Hubble Space Telescope

From ArticleWorld

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope that was launched into space to orbit the Earth. This telescope avoided several isssues associated with the viewing of space directly form the Earth. This telescope allows the taking of pictures of space that are very sharp and clear as the Earth's atmosphere is not in the way to distort the pictures. This telescope has added greatly to the information known about space. The telescope was initially launched in 1946 but a servicing mission in 1993 was required to restore the quality and make this tool valuable for research purposes.

Scientific benefits

This telescope has led to the resolution of several problems in astronomy and revealed many unsolved mysteries that require new theories. The hubble was instrumental in the refining of the age of the universe and brought to light issues concerning the future of the universe as it detected that the universe may not be decelerating under the influence of the universe but actually accelerating.

The repairs to the telescope also coincided with the following comet collision on Jupiter that was documented in clearer images than were obtained in previous years. Some other major discoveries using Hubble include the proto-planetary disks, extrasolare planets and gamma-ray bursts.

Impacts

Hubble data has had a profound effect on the field of astronomy. It has resulted in over 4000 papers being published based on data sourced from the Hubble telscope. These articles tend to be sited more than other articles not based on Hubble data. This revolution however has been expensive in the making as this telescope is approximately 100 times more expensive than other telescopes. The maintenance of them also costs a large amount of money and their ground counterparts may be much less expensive in both these aspects.