About
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, has been transforming our understanding of the universe for over 30 years. Orbiting 547 km above Earth's distorting atmosphere, Hubble has taken over 1.5 million observations, helping determine the age of the universe (13.8 billion years), discovering that the universe's expansion is accelerating (dark energy), and capturing images of extraordinary beauty and scientific value.
Hubble's first images were blurry due to a mirror polished to the wrong curvature — a 1.3mm error. In 1993, a Space Shuttle mission installed corrective optics, rescuing the $1.5 billion telescope. The Hubble Deep Field — a 10-day long exposure of a tiny blank-seeming patch of sky — revealed 3,000 galaxies, each containing billions of stars.
# Top 10 Hubble Space Telescope facts
- 1Hubble was launched with a flawed mirror — a 1.3mm error that required a space repair mission
- 2The Hubble Deep Field image revealed 3,000 galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length
- 3Hubble helped determine the universe is 13.8 billion years old — previously estimates ranged from 10 to 20 billion
Fascinating Facts
- ◆Hubble was launched with a flawed mirror — a 1.3mm error that required a space repair mission
- ◆The Hubble Deep Field image revealed 3,000 galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length
- ◆Hubble helped determine the universe is 13.8 billion years old — previously estimates ranged from 10 to 20 billion
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