The Extraordinary Hubble Space Telescope

Summary

The video explores the history and impact of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, detailing its groundbreaking contributions to astronomy. Initially launched with a flawed mirror, a major repair mission was undertaken to correct the issue, resulting in the telescope delivering breathtaking images of the universe. Hubble's observations revolutionized our understanding of cosmic expansion, revealing galaxies formed earlier and faster than expected. Through its 25 years in operation, Hubble remains a monumental achievement in space exploration, offering humanity an unprecedented look back in time, to the infancy of the universe.

Takeaways

• 🚀 NASA released a historic image of a red galaxy on March 4th, 2016, showcasing the universe in its infancy, just 3% of its current age.
• 🌌 The image was made possible by the Hubble Space Telescope, which was designed to measure the expansion of the universe and determine its age.
• 🔭 Hubble was launched in response to the Challenger disaster to reignite national pride and confidence in space exploration.
• 🛰️ Hubble's advantage over ground-based telescopes is its location above Earth's atmosphere, which allows for clearer images.
• 💿 The initial launch of Hubble was fraught with technical difficulties, most notably a flawed mirror that blurred the images.
• 🛠️ After the mirror issue was discovered, a daring spacewalk mission was planned to install corrective optics called COSTAR.
• 👩‍🚀 Astronauts like Kathryn Thornton played a critical role in the risky spacewalks to repair and upgrade Hubble.
• 🔄 The repaired Hubble has provided stunning images and data, helping to solve mysteries such as the age of the universe and its expansion rate.
• 🌟 Hubble's deep space observations have revealed that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars.
• 🕰️ Hubble acts as a time machine, allowing us to look back in time to just 400 million years after the Big Bang.
• 🎉 Hubble's success has been monumental, with its 25 years of operation being celebrated as one of NASA's greatest achievements.

Q & A

What significant image did NASA release on March 4th, 2016?

NASA released a historic image of a red dot, which is an entire galaxy whose light took 13.4 billion years to reach us. This image represents the universe in its infancy, just three percent of its current age.

What was the primary purpose of the Hubble Space Telescope?

The primary purpose of the Hubble Space Telescope was to solve a problem related to measuring the expansion of the universe, which would help determine the age of the universe.

How did the Hubble Space Telescope surpass ground-based telescopes?

Hubble surpassed ground-based telescopes because it was placed above Earth's atmosphere, which caused stars to appear to twinkle due to atmospheric turbulence. Being in space allowed Hubble to provide clearer images.

What was the challenge faced by Hubble due to its speed in orbit?

Hubble was orbiting the Earth at an astonishing speed of almost five miles per second, which caused it to naturally tend to tumble end over end. This made it difficult to take clear snapshots as the telescope needed to be stabilized.

How did the team stabilize the Hubble Space Telescope?

The team stabilized Hubble using six of the most finely balanced gyroscopes ever constructed, each with a wheel spinning 320 times per second, to maintain stability by spinning quickly on one axis.

What was the initial problem with the Hubble Space Telescope after its launch?

The initial problem was that the first images from Hubble were blurry, indicating that the mirror was not focusing light properly, which was a critical issue for the telescope's mission.

What was the nature of the flaw in Hubble's mirror?

The flaw in Hubble's mirror was that it was spherically aberrated, meaning it was not the correct shape to focus light properly. The error was as small as a 50th of a human hair.

How did the team plan to fix the flawed mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope?

The team planned to fix the flawed mirror by sending a device called Costar, which contained small mirrors on motorized arms to correct the light beam entering the telescope, similar to glasses for vision correction.

What was the role of astronaut Kathryn Thornton in the Hubble repair mission?

Astronaut Kathryn Thornton played a critical role in the Hubble repair mission by replacing one of Hubble's instruments with Costar during a spacewalk, which allowed the corrective mirrors to deploy.

What was the outcome of the repaired Hubble Space Telescope?

After the repair, Hubble started sending back spectacular images that helped unlock numerous scientific mysteries, measure the expansion of the universe, and determine its age more precisely.

How has the Hubble Space Telescope contributed to our understanding of the universe?

Hubble has contributed immensely to our understanding of the universe by providing detailed images that allowed scientists to measure the universe's expansion, age, and revealing the existence of billions of galaxies.