The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a special tool that helps us see faraway stars and galaxies in great detail. Here’s what makes Hubble so remarkable:
Key Features
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Location:
- Hubble floats in space about 547 kilometers (or around 340 miles) above the Earth.
- Being high up means it can avoid the thick air around our planet, which helps it take clearer pictures.
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Advanced Instruments:
- Hubble has lots of cool instruments to help it see better:
- Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3): This camera can see different types of light, from ultraviolet to near-infrared.
- Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS): This tool is great for seeing ultraviolet light, which is important for studying the early universe.
- Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS): This helps Hubble look at different colors of light and see things that are very far away.
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High Resolution:
- Hubble's main mirror is about 2.4 meters (or 7.9 feet) wide.
- This big mirror helps it see things very clearly, even if they are really far away.
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Multispectral Observations:
- Hubble can look at many types of light, from ultraviolet to near-infrared.
- This ability lets it study many different aspects of space, like stars and galaxies.
Statistics and Achievements
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Distance Ability:
- Hubble can spot objects that are over 13.4 billion light-years away, like the galaxy GN-z11.
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Major Discoveries:
- Hubble has helped scientists learn important things, such as how fast the universe is expanding, how galaxies formed, and even finding planets outside our solar system.
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Volume of Data:
- Since it was launched in 1990, Hubble has sent back more than 1.5 million observations, giving us amazing pictures and information that change what we know about space.
These special features make Hubble a crucial tool for scientists today. It continues to help us discover new things and understand the universe better.