The Edwin Hubble telescope owes its name to that of the renowned astronomer who was instrumental in making some of the most important and outstanding discoveries in astronomy as are known to the modern man. Dr. Edwin Hubble was actually a lawyer who suddenly realized that he was interested passionately in knowing more about stars and this convinced him to chuck up his law practice in order to involve him totally in astronomy.
Startling Discovery
The man responsible for the Edwin Hubble telescope first made a startling discovery in the year 1920 during his stint at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. This great astronomer whose name was to grace man’s most advanced telescope realized that there were many unknown galaxies that lay very far off from Earth and which resembled the Milky Way. Thus, he and the rest of the astronomer’s world soon came to realize that the Milky Way was not the only galaxy in the universe.
Man, ever since the time of Galileo, has been obsessed with looking farther as well as deeper into space. The Edwin Hubble telescope is a culmination of all the efforts that have been put into finding answers to many unsolved and unknown mysteries that are waiting to be solved.
The Edwin Hubble telescope was launched in the year 1990 and it has, since then, helped man to make great advances in the study of the universe. Essentially, the Edwin Hubble telescope makes continuous orbits around the Earth and is positioned above the earth’s atmosphere thereby eliminating the chance of its pictures becoming distorted and instead it allows astronomers to look much closer at the universe in a manner that no earth-based telescope can hope to emulate.
The Edwin Hubble telescope is actually the longest lasting as well as most successful of all NASA science missions and this wonderful telescope has sent back hundreds of thousands of excellent images of the universe back to Earth. Many of the discoveries that are being made by astronomers are a direct consequence of the images that have been sent to Earth by the Edwin Hubble telescope – is it to understand how old the universe is, identify quasars as well as to learn about dark energy.
It is the quality of the excellent Hubble telescope images that has made astronomers become so much better informed about what is taking place in the Great Beyond. In fact, the discoveries that have been made, thanks to the Edwin Hubble telescope, have made a significant transformation in how astronomers are looking at the universe. The unprecedented clarity and detail of images beamed by the Edwin Hubble telescope has made conjectures turn into certainty and new theories have been propounded that require further explorations which hopefully the Edwin Hubble telescope, during the rest of its life, will facilitate even more.