Tuesday, January 07, 2003
The Big Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. Hard to believe it was that long ago. At first the telescope had an optical flaw and thought to be a 2 billion dollar white elephant. The optics were fully corrected in 1994 and since then the Hubble has provided some of the most stunning and well know images of our solar system and indeed, the universe. It has allowed us to see further back in time than any human has been capable of as all images of our universe are just that, history. The hubble has brought forth great scientific discoveries and estimated the age of our universe at 13.4 bilion years old. It's been able to see almost to the beginning of this time. Amazing when you stop to think that the light from such begining events began it's travel towards earth before earth existed and we're only seeing it now. How is such a thing possible even ...
So the Hubble is now well-known almost throughout the world, but what's next. That's a little less well advertised but work has begun on the Hubble successor. The Next Generation Telescope now known as the James Webb Space Telescope may be launched as early as 2008 with much luck. This will be the most powerful telescope ever built of course and allow us to see even further in the depths of space. God-Speed...
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. Hard to believe it was that long ago. At first the telescope had an optical flaw and thought to be a 2 billion dollar white elephant. The optics were fully corrected in 1994 and since then the Hubble has provided some of the most stunning and well know images of our solar system and indeed, the universe. It has allowed us to see further back in time than any human has been capable of as all images of our universe are just that, history. The hubble has brought forth great scientific discoveries and estimated the age of our universe at 13.4 bilion years old. It's been able to see almost to the beginning of this time. Amazing when you stop to think that the light from such begining events began it's travel towards earth before earth existed and we're only seeing it now. How is such a thing possible even ...
So the Hubble is now well-known almost throughout the world, but what's next. That's a little less well advertised but work has begun on the Hubble successor. The Next Generation Telescope now known as the James Webb Space Telescope may be launched as early as 2008 with much luck. This will be the most powerful telescope ever built of course and allow us to see even further in the depths of space. God-Speed...
