NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Papercraft Model by Hubblesite

21 Dec, 2021

The Hubble Telescope is the most advanced in the world. This telescope is in Earth orbit and serves as the recipient of any information about the state of outer space. Most objects and events in outer space can be observed from Earth because of the services of this telescope.

The Hubble Telescope has taught and inspired many people with all kinds of information, especially photographs that have been widely used in various science books. Well, you should know these five facts about telescopes that have inspired many people.

1. It is more than 29 years old

As written on the NASA website, the Hubble telescope is more than 29 years old. The telescope was first launched on April 24, 1990, and entered active orbit on April 25, 1990.

Almost a month later, on May 20, 1990, Hubble managed to capture the first image. At that time, the object that Hubble caught was the star cluster NGC 3532.

2. Hubble can "see" the past of the universe

With the Hubble telescope's ability to see the farthest galaxies in the universe, it is hoped that scientists can predict what happened to the universe billions of years ago.

In the scientific journal on the New Scientist page, Hubble has managed to capture an image of a cosmos in a galaxy cluster named Abell S1063. This cluster is estimated to be about four billion light-years from Earth.

Scientists believe that Hubble can "see" even further back, so it can predict what happened to the universe billions of years ago.

A distance of four billion light-years from Earth means that the location can be traveled for four billion years at the speed of light (300 thousand km/sec).

So, if the Hubble telescope can see the light of a galaxy that is four billion light-years away, it means that the light or object that Hubble caught is light or an object from four billion years ago. In other words, Hubble has seen the past of the universe.

3. Hubble is taken from the name of an astronomer

According to the Hubble Site page, the name of the Hubble telescope itself is taken from the name of a space scientist named Edwin Powell Hubble. Hubble is an astronomer from the United States who dedicated his life to science, especially astronomy.

Edwin Hubble's greatest work is Hubble's Law, which is an astronomical law which states that the redshift of incident light is proportional to the distance.

4. The Hubble Telescope was dead for three weeks

Reporting from the NASA page, on October 5-26 2018, the world's most expensive telescope experienced a malfunction that required it to shut down. Damage occurs due to one of the gyro lens sensors on the telescope experiencing problems or interference.

After repairs that took three weeks, finally on October 26, 2018, the Hubble telescope returned to normal and carried out its tasks smoothly.

5. The Hubble telescope has a long way to go

Scientists and astronomers believe that the Hubble telescope can still be used for some time to come, it could even be very long. However, at least, it is hoped that Hubble can continue to operate without problems until 2020.

As reported on the Space page, although scientists are optimistic about Hubble's performance in the coming years, some events can permanently damage Hubble, such as radiation.