The Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope(HST) was the first telescope to operate from space. It is designed to work above the disruptive effects of the atmosphere and is in orbit around the Earth. It was launched by the Space Shuttle and designed for a long orbital lifetime with occasional Shuttle-serviced maintenance and instrument changes.

Hubble Space Telescope © NASA

Some facts about the telescope: Observatory location: In orbit around the Earth Altitude: 600 km Mass: 11600 kg Mirror diameter: 2.4 meters Launch date: 24 April 1990

The amazing picture to the right shows the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) being deployed in space from the Space Shuttle.

HST has been a spectacular success. The sharpness of the images produced by the telescope has allowed astronomers to learn much more about the fine structure of the Universe.

Being above the Earth's atmosphere ensures that the light coming from space is not disturbed as it enters the telescope. This results in very sharp and detailed images. On Earth, telescopes are sited high up on mountain tops where there is much less disturbance of the air than we find closer to sea level.

The stunning picture on the left shows astronauts Story Musgrave and Jeffrey Hoffman during an extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or space-walk, to make repairs to the telescope.

Australia's west coast can be seen in the background.
 

Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
Over the decades, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured many dramatic and sometimes eerie pictures, such as these newborn stars (see left) emerging from cosmic "eggs" - not the barnyard variety - but rather dense, compact clouds of interstellar gas, called evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs).

Hubble found the "EGGs", appropriately enough, in the Eagle nebula - a nearby star-forming region 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

With this right-hand image, the Hubble telescope revealed fine structure in a 1,000 year old cloud of gas, or nebula as it's more commonly called.

This colourful structure is a fossil record of the releases of huge amounts of energy and material from a dying star.