Telescopes in Orbit


      There are many space telescopes but one of the most notable and famous is the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble 6

      T      he Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and has been in orbit around the Earth ever since. It has had four update missions and is suppose to last until 2014 when it will be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope. Hubble's instruments allow it to see in various wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
      Hubble Instrument
      		 Type of Light seen by Instrument
      Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
      		 Near-Ultraviolet, Visible, Near-Infrared
      Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
      		 Ultraviolet
      Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
      		 Visible
      Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
      		 Ultraviolet, Visible, Near-Infrared
      Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)
      		 Infrared
      Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS)
      		 Locks on to "guide stars" to stay in the right position

      Being outside of Earth’s atmosphere allows the telescope to see very sharp images and avoids background light. hubblesite.org states, "The most effective way to avoid the problems of the atmosphere is to place your telescope beyond it. Or, in Hubble's case, 353 miles (569km) above the surface of Earth."


 
back
 next