Hubble Space Telescope observes 17 candles on birthday cake

By William Atkins
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 19:37

Science - Space

The Hubble Space Telescope was named after American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble (1889-1953), who made important discoveries in cosmology, especially with regards to the study of the galaxies, and the size and expansion of the universe.

As of October 2006, NASA has announced that Hubble will be serviced by an astronaut crew (Servicing Mission-4 [SM-4]) from the Space Shuttle sometime in the last half of 2008. NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis (STS-124) is tentatively scheduled for the Hubble repair mission on August 28, 2008. New science instruments and replacement parts will extend Hubble’s life through 2013.

The James Webb Space Telescope will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013. The Webb primary mirror will be 2.5 times larger than the Hubble mirror, although the overall mass of the Webb observatory is about one-half of Hubble’s mass.

The Webb Space Telescope, formerly called the Next Generation Space Telescope, will be operated by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), along with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The increased size and accuracy of the Webb mirror will allow it to observe deeper into the universe than any other previous telescope—whether on the ground or in space. It will glean this information within the infrared (IR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum—primarily between 0.6 and 28 micrometers (mm) in wavelength.

Keep up-to-date with Hubble through NASA’s Web site: http://hubble.nasa.gov/index.php.

Stay abreast of latest activities of Hubble through the Web site of the Space Telescope Science Institute: http://www.stsci.edu/resources/.

Highlights of Hubble's accomplishments can be found at: http://hubblesite.org/pubinfo/pdf/2007/16/pdf1.pdf.

The home NASA Web page for the James Webb Space Telescope is: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/.