Friday, April 24, 2015

Telescope “Hubble” – 25 years! – National Geographic Russia

The space telescope “Hubble» (Hubble Space Telescope) – an automatic observatory in orbit around the Earth; a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency. His name was in honor of the telescope, Edwin Hubble (1889-1953 gg.): One of the most influential astronomers and cosmologists, who made a decisive contribution to the understanding of the structure of the cosmos.

Even with the 20-ies of the last century astrophysics considered the possibility creation of an extraterrestrial observatory, but only after the Second World War it became possible to pay appropriate attention to the development of space astronomy. In 1946, was first obtained by the ultraviolet spectrum of the sun; orbital telescope for solar research was launched by the UK in 1962, and four years later, NASA sent into space the first orbital observatory OAO-1.

The mission failed due to battery failure three days after launch. The next generation of orbital observatories created taking into account the mistakes of the past and new technologies could work already longer – so that was launched April 24, 1990 a telescope “Hubble” to date provides invaluable information to Earth from space.

Over the past 25 years, “Hubble” had to mend; maintenance station is carried out during spacewalks with a space shuttle type “Space Shuttle”. Total was committed four such expeditions. Read more

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