The Hubble Telescope Discussed
April 24, 1990, a little over 8:30 am. That was when the Space Shuttle discovery was launched. It was the launch vehicle for the Hubble Telescope which is set to orbit the Earth for the next nineteen years. It is named after Edwin Hubble, an American Astronomer who introduced the other galaxies other than the Milky Way to humanity. Strangely, he was more inclined athletically than intellectually when he was still studying. But his brain prowess still manifested because he was able to gain exceptional grades in school. And in the same year, the state high school record for high jump was set by the same fellow, Edwin Hubble.
Edwin Hubble had a very colorful life. He graduated with a degree in Science at the turn of the 20th century. He was named “Man of the Year” by the Kappa Sigma Fraternity of which he was a member. He fought during the First World War as a soldier in the United States Army, he coached a basketball team, and he was member of the bar association in Kentucky. Until he died, he was a staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, and he was the first astronomer who used the largest optical telescope at that time, the Hale Telescope.
United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency teamed up to bring the Hubble Telescope into space. It nearly did not get where it is now due to the tragedy that beset the Challenger space shuttle. During its grounding, the Hubble telescope was held in reserve inside a secluded room and had to be purged with nitrogen until its actual launch.
After its successful launch, astronomers found out that it was not that successful after all. They discovered too late that the main mirror had the wrong shape and its flaw from what was supposed to be the correct ground mirror shape was just 2.2 microns. Yes, the difference is minute but its repercussions are massive. The Hubble Telescope was unable to deliver the right focus and resolution intended when it was manufactured. For a long time, the space telescope was practically useless.
Even though the Hubble telescope is not the lone space exploration observatory ( Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are all in outer space ), it is the only space observatory designed to be serviced, the 4th and last of which was last May 2009.
Anybody can line up and apply for observation time on the Hubble telescope. Practically anyone, regardless of race and intellect, but let me warn you that the list may be more than a year long.
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