From telling the age of the universe to monitoring the activities happening in the solar system, the Hubble Space Telescope has emerged as one of the best tools of humanity.
Hubble Telescope (NASA)
As soon as we hear the name of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, beautiful images of the space taken by it start appearing in our mind. But do you know that this telescope was planned for many decades before sending it to space. Only then was it launched on 24 April 1990. However, since its launch, it has sent more than one beautiful pictures to the earth.
From telling the age of the universe to monitoring the activities in the solar system, the Hubble telescope has emerged as one of the best tools of humanity. The Hubble telescope has been serving the space for the last 31 years. By the end of this year, NASA will send its James Webb Telescope into space as Hubble’s successor. In such a situation, let us once look at the entire timeline of Hubble telescope from its imagery to its space.
1946: Yale University astrophysicist Liman Spitzer Jr. explained the importance of astronomy in 1946 and gave the idea of a large space telescope.
1957: On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite Sputnik 1. With this, the race started on the space between the US and the Soviet Union.
1958: The US became effective after its establishment on 1 October 1958, ‘National Aeronautics and Space Administration’ (NASA). It was established on 29 July this year.
1969: This year the National Academy of Science published a study about the ‘scientific experiment of large space telescope’, which supported Hubble.
1977: The US Congress approved the funding on October 1, 1977, and the project began.
1978: In December 1978, grinding began with a 2.4-meter (7.9-ft) primary mirror for the Giant Space Telescope.
1983: The giant space telescope was renamed this year in honor of astronomer Edwin Hubble. They proved that there were other galaxies in our universe and that they are moving away from our Milky Way galaxy.
1990: On April 24, 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It had five astronauts and the Hubble Space Telescope. A day later, it was deployed in space.
1990: The Hubble Space Telescope captured the first image on May 20, 1990, with its wide field and planetary camera.
1991: On January 16, 1991, the Hubble telescope gave a bonus information to NASA while giving information about the remains of the supernova 1987A. Actually, it gave the exact distance information of our neighboring galaxy. This distance was 1,69,000 light years.
1991: The Hubble Space Telescope captured the first image of the planet Jupiter on 17 May 1991 and observed it. That big red spot of Jupiter was also seen in this picture.
1992: On November 19, 1992, the telescope observed that a strange phenomenon is happening in the galaxy NGC 4261, about 4.5 million light years away from the Earth. Actually, there is a black hall at the end of NGC 4261, which is pulling things around.
1993: Astronomers announced via Hubble that they had found the exact distance to the M81 galaxy, which was 11 million light years away. Through this precise distance, the astronomers got to know the spread of the universe and its age. At that time it was told that the age of the universe is 10 to 20 billion years. However, at present its age is said to be 13.8 billion years.
1994: Observations conducted via the Hubble telescope revealed on May 25, 1994, that there was a giant black hall in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Its distance from Earth is five crore light years.
1994: Scientists using Hubble announced on November 8, 1994 that they had prepared the first picture of the surface features on Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan’s atmosphere is four times more dense than Earth’s atmosphere, with nitrogen being its primary component.
1995: Astronomers announced that they have detected the presence of oxygen on Jupiter’s moon Europa through the Hubble telescope. This was the first time that astronomers had identified oxygen in the atmosphere of a satellite.
1996: Astronomers published photos of Pluto taken by Hubble, which revealed for the first time the surface of this dwarf planet. Bright variations were seen on the surface through the photograph.
1999: On January 6, Hubble released a picture of the Ring Nebula, discovered 200 years earlier by French astronomer Charles Messier. It was listed as Messier 57 (M57). This nebula was created due to the gas coming out of a dying star.
2000: Astronomers announced that they had discovered the missing hydrogen using Hubble. This hydrogen was formed during the bing-bang, but later disappeared.
2001: On November 27, astronomers reported that Hubble made the first direct measurement of the atmosphere of any exoplanet. Hubble detected sodium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet orbiting a star like our sun, about 150 light years away from Earth. This exoplanet was called HD 209458.
2005: On 31 October, the Astronomers released a picture from Hubble showing two previously unseen moons. These two moons were orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto. This helped to understand Pluto’s system.
2005: The Hubble telescope detected two never before seen giant dusty rings and two moons of the planet Arun. Hubble also showed that there has been a lot of change in the orbits of the inner moons of the planet Arun in the last decade.
2008: Hubble’s astronomers announce the discovery of methane in an exoplanet environment. Methane HD was found on a Jupiter-sized planet called 189733b. This was the first time an organic molecule was detected on one exoplanet.
2012: On May 31, Astronomers announced that our Milky Way galaxy would collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4 billion years. The Antromeda galaxy is currently 2.5 million light years away, but it is advancing rapidly.
2014: Scientists released a picture of Hubble showing that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is getting smaller than before, indicating that the giant storm on the planet is shrinking.
2017: Astronomers reported that they discovered seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the star called TRAPPIST-1 using the Spitzer Space Telescope. At the same time, Hubble investigated the atmosphere of four planets, including three planets living in the habitable zone of the stars. Investigation conducted by Hubble revealed that the surface of two of these planets is rocky.
2018: On April 2, a picture of Icarus, the most distant star ever taken by the Hubble telescope, was released. The giant blue star lives in a very distant spiral galaxy and is so far away that it has taken 9 billion years for its light to reach Earth.
Also read: James Webb Telescope: Hubble’s ‘successor’ opens his ‘eyes’ for the last time on Earth
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