The Hubble Space Telescope

John Anderson

A little history Original idea proposed Lynam Spizer in 1946

Eliminate the effect of Earth’s atmosphere at optical wavelengths

Able to observe in infra-red and ultra-violet wavelengths

The Space Shuttle made the idea feasible

Budget of $360 million approved by Congress in 1977

Became a joint project between NASA and ESA

HubbleTelescope Schematic

Hubble’s Primary Mirror

Hubble’s Orbit

Hubble orbits 357 miles above Earth in 97 minutes

How do you manoeuvre a Space Telescope and keep it pointing with very high accuracy?

Hubble’s Original Instruments

Wide field planetary camera (WIFPIC)

Faint object camera

High Resolution spectrograph

High Speed Photometer

Faint object spectrograph

After delays the planned launch date was late 1986

January 1986 Challenger disaster – Shuttle fleet grounded

Provided extra time for some enhancements to Hubble and to improve tracking and data handling

Finally launched in April 1990 aboard Discovery

Deployment of H.S.T. April 1990

Mirror Problem !

M100 Galaxy

COSTAR

Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement

Replaced the High Speed Photometer

Servicing Mission 1 - December 1993

Key mission with 5 days EVA

- Fitted COSTAR & WIFPIC 2- Replaced 2 gyroscopes & R.S.U.- Fitted new solar arrays- Upgraded on board computer & data

storage

Servicing Mission 1 - December 1993

Hubble’s Vision Fixed

M100Before After

Servicing Missions

No 2 in February 1997No 3 A in December 1999No 3 B in March 2002No 4 scheduled for 2005 but cancelled after

Columbia disaster in 2003Re-instated and took place in May 2009

Final Servicing Mission in 2009

H.S.T’s Contribution

An immense contribution to astronomy, cosmology and astro-physics

Been able to see further and fainter objects than ever before

Over 9,000 academic papers published using Hubble’s data and images

Helped establish more precisely the age of the Universe and its rate of expansion – the Hubble Constant

H.S.T’s ContributionDecember 2012 – discovered what may be the farthest galaxyAt 13.2 billion light years

What will happen to Hubble?

Scheduled to operate until 2014

Left to itself its orbit will gradually decay until it burns up in the atmosphere

Final “de-orbit” mission

The De-Orbit mission

What comes next ?

The James Webb Space Telescope