How Astronomy Has Changed: A Look at New Ways to Explore Space

Astronomy is the study of stars, planets, and everything in the universe. Over the years, we have developed some amazing tools that help us learn more about space. Here are some key improvements in how we observe the universe:

1. Telescopes:

   • Optical telescopes: A long time ago, in 1609, Galileo made a simple telescope with a lens that was about the size of a soda can. Today, we have giant telescopes like the Gran Telescopio Canarias, which is as big as a small building!
   • Radio telescopes: These were first created in the 1930s. Some of the newer ones, like the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), can pick up signals that are billions of light-years away. That’s really far!

2. Satellites:

   • One big step forward was the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. This telescope works high above the Earth’s atmosphere, giving us super-clear pictures, sharper than a fine pencil line.
   • Another important telescope is the Kepler Space Telescope, which launched in 2009. It has found over 2,600 new planets outside our solar system! This helps us learn a lot about how different planets can be.

3. Space Probes:

   • NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2, which were sent into space in 1977, have traveled over 14 billion miles! They are helping us understand more about the planets far away and even what’s out in space between the stars.
   • Another exciting mission was when New Horizons flew by Pluto in 2015. It sent back incredible pictures and details about Pluto and its moons that we had never seen before.

Thanks to these amazing tools, we can explore and study the universe in ways we never thought possible. With each new discovery, we get closer to understanding how vast and wonderful space really is!