Despite its age and small size, the Hubble Space Telescope remains one of the major telescopes in the world. In comparison to the massive 8-10m telescopes erected on the ground, with even larger ones planned in the future, the 2.4m Hubble mirror is rather standard for modern research telescopes, with optics reaching their third decade of usage. However, it routinely outperforms many of the most advanced ground-based telescopes and is still regarded as the pinnacle of optical and ultraviolet astronomy, with demand for its use in research far outstripping available observing time each year. Since it is a significant telescope, have a look at what discoveries it has made.
Hubble’s performance is owed in large part to its position high above the atmosphere, which eliminates several influences that impede ground-based observers. In fact, due to the existence of chemicals like ozone in the upper atmosphere that filter ultraviolet light, UV astronomy is nearly impossible to perform from the ground. Because of this, Hubble can collect some of the sharpest and deepest views of our universe because of this, as well as the lack of turbulent air currents that cause stars to appear to twinkle.
When Hubble provides us with photographs from space, it always shows us how objects appeared in the past. This is because light takes time to travel large distances from the objects it originated from. Even with relatively close objects, the delay can be dramatic, with our nearest neighbouring galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, being seen as it was over 2.5 million years ago. This means that telescopes like Hubble function as time machines, allowing us to investigate the evolution of our Universe.
Discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope
Here are some of the important scientific discoveries made by the Hubble Telescope:
- The universe’s age, which is now known to be 13.8 billion years old, is about three times the age of Earth.
- Pluto’s two moons, Nix and Hydra,
- helped determine the rate at which the universe is expanding.
- The fact that practically every significant galaxy has a central black hole
- Produced a three-dimensional map of dark matter
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