Adventures of the ancient past are waiting to be told by perhaps the most intriguing storyteller this side of the Milky Way Galaxy. They are tales of undiscovered star clusters, distant galaxies, black holes and cosmic collisions, told through dazzling images and colorful panoramas of light. The storyteller is the Hubble Space Telescope - a system of complex mirrors, cameras and instruments that sits 300 miles above the Earth's atmosphere.
Hubble allows astronomers and enthusiasts alike to tour the cosmos. Its images uncover ancient secrets preserved by the universe for millions of years.
Before Hubble, the other side of the universe was limited to whatever the human imagination could cook up - perhaps concoctions of sci-fi, fantasy and romanticized star-gazing. So many questions remained unanswered for millions of years. What was the other side of the universe like? Are there other galaxies like ours? How big is the universe? Then came 1990, the year when Hubble was launched into orbit, and the universe would never again look the same. Hubble is our window to the universe; our Christopher Columbus to the unexplored regions of space. This bus-size piece of graphite and glass has pushed our vision of the universe right to the edge of the Big Bang - the explosion that scientists theorize created the universe 10 to 15 billion years ago.
But we have to probe further to fully appreciate Hubble. Its images are much more than mere kaleidoscopes of color. They are pieces of the universal puzzle scientists may never have put together without its far-reaching sight.
Hubble has served as the Earth's ultimate storyteller for more than a decade, and now it is our turn to tell the tale of Hubble. Allow us to whet your appetites with a cornucopia of cosmic cognizance. Come with us as we explore the knowledge and beauty Hubble reveals and the secrets it continues to unravel.
Wonder no longer. Since 1990, when Hubble was launched into orbit, the world has been intrigued, bedazzled and inspired. A whole new universe opened up to us. It took 15 years to bring Hubble online (1975-1990) but it was well worth the wait. The $1.5 billion telescope provides the clearest pictures ever taken of the universe. No other telescope like it exists to this day.
Hubble sees the universe with incredible clarity. It is designed to see the heavens 10 times more clearly than any telescope on Earth and is able to see objects one-billionth as bright as the human eye.
In a nutshell, Hubble is NASA's first large orbital optical observatory - orbital because it orbits the Earth, optical because it uses a system of cameras and mirrors to relay vivid images, and observatory because, well, it observes. But what the Hubble observes is the source of its fame.
Its specialized instruments bring back images of newborn star clusters, nebulae and cosmic phenomena never seen before, including the ever-elusive black hole.
Imagine a cluster of newborn stars spotted by Hubble five million light years away. Images of the heavenly nursery are downloaded into scientists' computers and then relayed for the public to view. The local 5 o'clock news opens with a breaking story: "Hubble Finds Young Stars in Cosmic Dance." The story makes the front page of the newspaper and becomes the topic of conversation.
Many people mistake what Hubble sees as events occurring in the universe right now. But Hubble is not like live television. What people are doing is having a conversation about the universe's past. Although present technology is highly advanced, it is impossible to see the other side of the universe in real time.
Think of Hubble as an orbiting time machine. Though Hubble may spot a rare star cluster a few million light-years away, those stars may no longer exist. Information retrieved by Hubble is ancient because light from other parts of the universe has a long way to travel. One light-year means that light has traveled 5.9 trillion miles from its source in one year. That's quite a journey!
Specialized technology inside Hubble allows it to see as far as 13 billion light-years away. An object from that distance - at 5.9 trillion miles per light year - originates from the beginning stages of the universe. Light can travel only so fast, so by the time it reaches Hubble's sensors, we are seeing light from the past.
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