The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest astronomical telescopes ever sent into space. It dramatically altered the way in which we view our universe.
From its vantage point high above Earth's obscuring atmosphere, the telescope provides astronomers with fascinating new information on the universe.
Launched from Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, the telescope was initially hampered by a defectively shaped main mirror. During a 1993 repair mission, Shuttle astronauts installed COSTAR, a device that resolved the problem, and scientists were finally able to make full use of the telescope’s incredible capabilities.
Soon after its launch in 1990, scientists realized that the Hubble Space Telescope’s large primary mirror was flawed. It distorted images and data, making everything blurry. A Shuttle crew installed this corrective optics package, called COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement), in 1993 and returned it to Earth in 2009 when it was replaced with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
COSTAR's long box holds a clever device: tiny nickel-size mirrors that extended on short arms into the light path inside the telescope. These mirrors were precisely shaped to cancel the flaw in the large main mirror, and precisely positioned to send corrected, focused light into three instruments. A new fourth instrument, a wide-field camera, came with its own built-in corrective optics. COSTAR was an ingenious solution to the unexpected challenge of correcting the Hubble’s distorted vision.
Hubble images serve both scientific and cultural purposes. Technicians at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where the Hubble images are processed, employ both science and artistry to color and orient the data they receive from the telescope. The vibrant and stunning Hubble images released to the public often reflect what their makers want us to understand about an object, rather than how the object would actually appear to our eyes.
For ten consecutive days in December 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope looked deep into space—and back in time. Using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, scientists took 342 separate exposures that they assembled into one image: the Hubble Deep Field.
Covering a patch of sky only about the width of a dime as seen from 23 meters (75 feet) away, the Hubble Deep Field revealed at least 1,500 galaxies in various stages of evolution. “As the images have come up on our screens,” Hubble director Robert Williams said, “we have not been able to keep from wondering if we might somehow be seeing our own origins in all of this.”
Launched over 30 years ago, experts reflect on what the Hubble Telescope has taught us over the decades.
The Hubble Space Telescope is opening new frontiers of astronomical discovery, even decades after its launch, thanks to its suite of cameras and spectrographs, five astronaut servicing missions, and innovative uses by scientists around the world. In this lecture, Jennifer Wiseman, Hubble Space Telescope senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will highlight Hubble’s newest incredible observations of stars, distant galaxies, and even planets outside our solar system. She will also discuss how Hubble is being used for clever investigations of mysterious dark matter, dark energy, and black holes. With the imminent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Hubble mission is now placing special emphasis on observations that will set the stage for the most effective uses of JWST.
Nancy Grace Roman began working on the question of putting astronomical instruments into space as early as 1962, puzzling about how an accurate pointing system could be incorporated on a telescope or detector that would be small enough to be launched by the rockets of the day. Her advocacy for putting the tools of astronomy in space, beyond the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere, eventually led to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The National Air and Space Museum gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company for donating this artifact and supporting its initial restoration. The test vehicle was refurbished for this exhibit by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Lockheed Martin Technical Operations, Jackson and Tull, NSI Technology Services, Swales & Associates, Hughes Danbury Optical Systems, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.