NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reaches a whopping 30 years in orbit on April 24, 2020, but astronomers hope this iconic instrument can continue to study the skies for a little longer.
It seems incredible that 30 years have passed since Hubble was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, especially considering that it already has a successor, the James Webb space telescope built by Northrop Grumman. (JWST) and Ball Aerospace with the collaboration of approximately 17 countries and which will be launched in May 2021.
During the 1970s, NASA and ESA began planning a space telescope that could transcend the blurring effects of the atmosphere and take clearer images of the universe than has ever been seen before.
Despite a flaw in the main mirror that was corrected fairly quickly, Hubble has far exceeded the expectations placed on it.
Although the telescope is widely known for its fantastic cosmic images and contributions to astronomy, its observations revealed far-reaching questions, such as that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, prompting astronomers to propose the existence of a force. mysterious called dark energy or probing the atmospheres of planets around distant stars.
Since that black-and-white image – and quite blurry – that he saw for the first time on May 20, 1990, NASA officials have instructed and enhanced the Hubble Space Telescope to show us the unexplored depths of our universe with each time more detail.
To celebrate these 30 years of success and impact in engineering, science and culture, the US space agency, NASA and the European Space Agency, ESA have wanted to celebrate with a magnificent calendar of spectacular images. The 12 commemorative calendar images (chosen from a selection of 100 photos via social media voting) comprise lesser-known but beautiful cosmic wonders captured during the historic Hubble Space Telescope’s three decades in space.
