The wonders of space and beyond is something that has intrigued and mystified scientists for centuries. From the beginning of time people have wondered what lurks beyond the horizon, what orbits the world, what galaxies exist beyond the Earth, and what in fact is beyond what the human eye can see.
The development of the telescope can be attributed to three scientists, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei and Hans Lippershey. Even though they lived all lived during a similar time period, each scientist contributed to the world of space and what lies beyond. In fact, it could be fair to say that without each of their scientific theories and discoveries the telescope wouldn’t have been able to be as sophisticated as it is today.
Scientists and astronomers are and have always been curious about space and other universes. What lives beyond what we can comprehend as our planet Earth. This curiosity led to astronomers putting telescopes in space in order to get a better understanding of what is out there. What other planets there are and if in fact there is another life form living on other planets other than the Earth. How in fact did planets and galaxies form? Were they just created or did they join particles together to create a planet? Little by little as the information filtered through and technology advanced, curiosity grew the better of astronomers and the need to know more, and the need to reach further into space, motivated the desire to build better and more sophisticated telescopes. Ultimately, astronomers have discovered that by putting telescopes in space rather than just on Earth, they can eliminate the atmosphere that surrounds the Earth, which can affect the images seen through the telescope. The added benefits of having a telescope in space is that they can orbit the Earth 24/7 at different angles, collecting images and data which would produce a level of quality without the atmosphere that would not be possible from Earth.
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The suggestion to launch a telescope into orbit was made in 1923 by Hermann Oberth a German scientist, who understood that by eliminating the Earth’s atmosphere, clearer more precise images could be taken. It wasn’t until a further 52 years later that work actually began on making this suggestion into a reality. The collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA to plan, build and launch a telescope into space finally became a reality on 24 April, 1990. In total a whole 67 years after the first suggestion was made by Hermann Oberth, when the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida USA.
I’m sure trying to list Hubble’s achievements is like asking a parent to list their child’s achievements, where does one start and more importantly where does one finish, the list is exhaustive, but 5 major achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope are:
- Assisting in determining the age of the universe. Previously, scientists and astronomers could just predict the age of the universe, but through the assistance from the data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the measurement of the brightness of Cepheid variable stars – a special kind of star that pulses on a set cycle, scientists now are able to measure vast distances in the universe together with the knowledge they already had. The Cepheid star will appear dimmer if it is farther away, giving researchers an easy way to gauge how distant its host galaxy is to Earth.
- The discovery that in all most all galaxies black holes exist. The high resolution of Hubble measured the velocity of stars orbiting the black hole. A sharp rise in velocity means that a great deal of matter is locked away in the galaxy’s core.
- The process of how planets are born. The fine particles of dust that create planets were unable to be seen from telescopes positioned on Earth. Thus, the close proximity of the Hubble to planets in the solar system have helped scientists understand how planets are formed.
- The discovery of extrasolar organic matter. It was first detected by the Hubble Telescope, which became breakthrough, an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on planets outside our solar system. Without the Hubble this may have still gone undiscovered, even today.
- The discovery of the new moons of Pluto. The discovery of 4 of the 5 moons discovered by Hubble that dwarf Pluto. Between 2005 and 2012 the 4 further moons were discovered by the Hubble Telescope orbiting space.
Man is always seeking new discoveries and searching for what lies beyond our Earth, our system and our galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope first initiated this possibility by sending a telescope into space beyond our atmosphere to document space, which became a reality in 1990. The Hubble Space Telescope has served its purpose well since its inception and subsequent launch. It has been circling the orbit and sending valuable information to astronauts and scientists alike for nearly three decades. But like everything, there is always room for improvement and new advanced technologies discovered. The possibilities are endless, and we know future scientific discoveries about space will likely turn everything we know upside down, just as Hubble did. We can only wait in anticipation of what the technology now available to us today will bring.
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