Sage-Tips

What if you pointed the Hubble telescope at Earth?

If Hubble looked at the Earth — from its orbit of approximately 600 km above the earth’s surface — this would in theory correspond to 0.3 metres or 30 cm. Quite impressive! But Hubble would have to look down through the atmosphere, which would blur the images and make the actual resolution worse.

What are 5 facts about the Hubble telescope?

Hubble Space Telescope Facts

• Hubble Space Telescope is about the size of a large school bus.
• It weighs 24,500 pounds.
• Hubble gathers energy from the sun using two 25-foot solar panels.
• Hubble orbits the Earth at a cruising speed of 17,000 miles per hour, and takes 15 minutes to rotate 90 degrees.

What are the limitations of the Hubble Space Telescope?

One of these limitations is that the HST can’t observe the sun because the intense light and heat would fry its sensitive instruments. For this reason, the HST is always pointed away from the sun. That also means that Hubble can’t observe Mercury, Venus and certain stars that are close to the sun either.

Why do stars appear pointy in Hubble Space Telescope images?

Why? Because in the Hubble Space Telescope, the smaller secondary mirror is held in position by four cross hair-like struts, and the incoming light has to travel past these struts to land on the bigger main mirror. This light gets bent, giving the star its characteristic four points.

What is unique about the Hubble telescope?

It is a very special telescope which orbits far above the Earth. Hubble allows us to see objects more clearly because it is above the clouds in Earth’s atmosphere. Hubble is not only a powerful telescope, but it also carries cameras which allow scientists on Earth to see objects billions of light-years away.

What did we do about the Hubble space telescope flaw?

The result was a mirror with an aberration one-50th the thickness of a human hair, in the grinding of the mirror. Replacing the mirror was not practical, so the best solution was to build replacement instruments that fixed the flaw much the same way a pair of glasses correct the vision of a near-sighted person.

How does the Hubble telescope communicate with Earth?

Hubble uses a digital camera. It takes pictures like a cell phone. Then Hubble uses radio waves to send the pictures through the air back to Earth.

What is the main advantage of the Hubble telescope?

The Hubble telescope provides four key advantages over most other optical astronomical facilities: unprecedented angular resolution over a large field, spectral coverage from the near infrared to the far ultraviolet, an extremely dark sky, and highly stable images that enable precision photometry.

Can we see Earth from space with Hubble telescope?

February 28, 2014 If the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) could observe Earth from its orbit 570 kilometers (350 miles) above Earth’s surface, it would in theory be able to see objects as small as 0.3 meters (30 centimeters). But it’s not possible to turn the telescope in an Earth-observing direction.

What are the advantages of the Hubble Space Telescope?

Hubble’s orbit outside the distortion of atmosphere of Earth allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. It has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space.

Where did Edwin Hubble use the Hubble telescope?

About the Hubble Space Telescope. They were placed far from city lights and as far above the haze of the atmosphere as possible. Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Telescope is named, used the largest telescope of his day in the 1920s at the Mt. Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, Calif., to discover galaxies beyond our own.

What was the fifth mission to the Hubble Space Telescope?

Seen in orbit from the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009, flying Servicing Mission 4 ( STS-125 ), the fifth and final Hubble mission. The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation.