On April 24, 1990, Hubble Space Telescope was launched and would revolutionize humans' view of the universe for years to come. Hubble's capabilities completely outmaneuvered that of any other observatory or telescope constructed before because it is the first of its kind to be placed directly in orbit. Untouched by the visual distortion of Earth's atmosphere, the telescope can produce images of many galaxies, stars, planets, and other celestial objects, thus bridging the gap between man and the rest of the universe.
Arguably one of the most famous images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is the 1995 "Pillars of Creation," which features the 4 light-years high Eagle Nebula where stars form. This famous image is the clearest that the telescope has captured of this specific nebula, with the multi-colored glow of the gas clouds, individual pieces of cosmic dust, and rust-colored pillars, all pictured impeccably. Another Hubble Space Telescope image that revolutionized the view of space and invigorated a greater feeling of potential for space exploration is the 1995 "Hubble Deep Field." Although it is not as detailed of an image as "Pillars of Creation," it captures galaxies upon galaxies all in one photo. The telescope was mainly intended to capture clear photos of specific space objects, but through this image, it introduced an entirely new technique to astronomy by taking a picture extremely deep into the Universe. Some of the smaller galaxies in the image are even 12 billion years old, which means that the light reaching the telescope is from just a few billion years after the Big Bang.
However, Hubble did not always produce such high-quality images. In fact, a faulty main mirror that was on the telescope during its first mission in 1990 resulted in extremely underwhelming, blurry photographs. As a result, the United States Space Agency's reputation took a great hit and could not afford to make more attempts at space photography until the telescope's technology was fixed. It was not until 1993 where a repair mission was launched and the space shuttle Endeavor took off to repair the faulty mirror and update technology to extend the telescope's longevity. It can even be argued that the Hubble Deep Field image may have saved the U.S. Space Agency from its previous status as the laughing stock of the government in 1990 by shocking Americans with the incredible image of deep space. As a result, Hubble was saved and became one of the most captivating space missions ever conducted. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, space exploration and astronomy have never been the same, for this ongoing mission provides a wider view of the universe's expansion and allows us to understand it like never before.
Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html
https://hubblesite.org/mission-and-telescope/the-telescope
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2015/04/24/when-hubble-stared-at-nothing-for-100-hours/
Arguably one of the most famous images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is the 1995 "Pillars of Creation," which features the 4 light-years high Eagle Nebula where stars form. This famous image is the clearest that the telescope has captured of this specific nebula, with the multi-colored glow of the gas clouds, individual pieces of cosmic dust, and rust-colored pillars, all pictured impeccably. Another Hubble Space Telescope image that revolutionized the view of space and invigorated a greater feeling of potential for space exploration is the 1995 "Hubble Deep Field." Although it is not as detailed of an image as "Pillars of Creation," it captures galaxies upon galaxies all in one photo. The telescope was mainly intended to capture clear photos of specific space objects, but through this image, it introduced an entirely new technique to astronomy by taking a picture extremely deep into the Universe. Some of the smaller galaxies in the image are even 12 billion years old, which means that the light reaching the telescope is from just a few billion years after the Big Bang.
This is such an interesting blog post! When further researching the Hubble Space Telescope, I found that it just released that it found evidence last week that there may be a mid-size black hole in another galaxy. It's about 50,000 times the size of the Sun, which is a lot smaller than the average size of a black hole. The Hubble Space Telescope also captured images of 3,000 galaxies, the extrasolar planet Fomalhaut b, and water plumes erupting from one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.
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https://www.space.com/15892-hubble-space-telescope.html
I really enjoyed reading your article! I looked further into how Hubble takes images of nebulas such as the Eagle Nebula. Hubble uses CCD cameras to record photons emitted from celestial objects, and then applies several filters to isolate specific colors. Once the images have been recorded on Earth, scientists would then use different colors to enhance the details of the image, and that is how the nebulas appear to be so colorful in the pictures. While one wouldn't see them as colorful with a naked eye, the nebulas as seen by Hubble are quite beautiful and "real" nevertheless.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.space.com/8059-truth-photos-hubble-space-telescope-sees.html