If you’ve ever seen a breathtaking image of a colorful nebula or a distant galaxy, chances are it came from one of the most important scientific instruments ever built. What is Hubble Space Telescope used for? It’s used to observe the universe in visible light and other wavelengths from above Earth’s blurring atmosphere, giving us an unprecidented view of cosmos.
Launched in 1990, Hubble isn’t just a camera. It’s a versatile observatory that has fundamentally changed our understanding of space. Its work touches on almost every area of astronomy, from our solar system to the edge of the observable universe. Let’s look at what this incredible telescope actually does.
What Is Hubble Space Telescope Used For
At its core, Hubble’s job is to collect light from celestial objects with extreme clarity. Because it orbits Earth about 340 miles up, it doesn’t have to peer through the distortion caused by our atmosphere. This allows it to see details up to ten times finer than the best ground-based telescopes. Its primary uses can be broken down into several key scientific missions.
Determining the Age and Rate of Expansion of the Universe
One of Hubble’s most famous acheivements is helping pin down the age of the universe. It did this by precisely measuring the distances to special stars called Cepheid variables in distant galaxies. These measurements helped astronomers calculate how fast the universe is expanding (the Hubble Constant). This work led to the discovery of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating that expansion. We now know the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, largely thanks to Hubble’s data.
Studying Planets in Our Solar System
Hubble acts as an outer solar system weather satellite. It regularly monitors the giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—tracking storms, auroras, and seasonal changes. It has watched comet impacts on Jupiter, studied the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, and even helped mission planners for probes like New Horizons by scouting Pluto before the flyby. It provides a constant, long-term look at our planetary neighbors.
Observing Galaxies and Black Holes
Hubble has provided stunning evidence that supermassive black holes lurk at the centers of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way. By watching how stars whip around galactic centers, it helped establish the relationship between a galaxy’s mass and its central black hole. Its deep field images, where it stared at a seemingly empty patch of sky for days, revealed thousands of galaxies, showing us the universe’s structure and how galaxies evolve over billions of years.
Investigating the Birth and Death of Stars
Hubble’s iconic images of the “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula show star formation in action. It peers through the dusty clouds where stars are born, revealing the process in incredible detail. Conversely, it captures the beautiful, complex remnants of stellar deaths—supernova remnants and planetary nebulae—teaching us how stars like our Sun will end their lives and enrich space with new elements.
Analyzing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets
While not built for finding exoplanets, Hubble is brilliant at studying them. It can analyze the light from a star as an exoplanet passes in front of it. This allows scientists to detect the chemical composition of that planet’s atmosphere, looking for water vapor, methane, sodium, and other signatures. This pioneering work paved the way for current and future telescopes to search for potential signs of habitability.
Key Instruments That Make It All Possible
Hubble isn’t a single tool. It’s a suite of instruments that work together:
- Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3): The main camera for ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. It takes most of the famous pictures.
- Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS): Splits light into its component colors to measure the temperature, density, chemical composition, and velocity of objects.
- Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS): Another spectrograph, excellent for studying black holes and galaxy cores.
- Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS): Designed for wide-field surveys, it has mapped large areas of the sky in great detail.
- Fine Guidance Sensors: These lock onto guide stars to keep Hubble incredibly steady, but they can also be used for astrometry, precisely measuring star positions.
How Hubble’s Data Reaches You
The process of getting an image from space to your screen is fascinating. It’s not a simple point-and-shoot camera.
- Observation Planning: Astronomers worldwide submit proposals. Winning proposals get scheduled time on Hubble.
- Commanding: Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center translate the observation plan into thousands of precise commands.
- Data Collection: Hubble points at the target, its instruments collect light, and the data is digitized and stored onboard.
- Data Transmission: Hubble sends the data via radio waves to satellites in NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), which relays it to the ground.
- Processing: Raw black-and-white data is sent to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Specialists calibrate it, combine different filters to create color images, and release it to the scientist and the public.
Hubble’s Greatest Hits: Landmark Discoveries
Over three decades, Hubble’s contributions have been monumental. Here are some of its biggest breakthroughs:
- The Hubble Deep Field: By staring at a tiny, dark spot for 10 days in 1995, it revealed over 3,000 previously unseen galaxies, showing the universe’s vastness and galaxy evolution.
- Dark Energy: Observations of distant supernovae helped reveal that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, pointing to the existence of dark energy.
- Galaxy Evolution: Hubble showed that galaxies looked very different in the early universe, often smaller and more irregular, merging over time to form the shapes we see today.
- Protoplanetary Disks: It directly imaged disks of dust and gas around young stars in the Orion Nebula, providing visual proof of planet formation in action.
- Pluto’s Moons: Hubble discovered four of Pluto’s five known moons: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.
Hubble’s Legacy and Future
Hubble is still operating powerfully today, thanks to five Space Shuttle servicing missions that repaired, upgraded, and replaced its parts. It works in tandem with newer observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope, which sees primarily in infrared. Webb can peer through dust to see the earliest galaxies, while Hubble’s sharp visible-light vision provides complementary data. Hubble’s lasting legacy is its transformation of astronomy from a data-poor to a data-rich science and its unparalleled role in bringing the universe to the public. Its archive, containing over 170 terabytes of data, will fuel new discoveries for decades to come.
Common Misconceptions About Hubble
- It takes color photos: Hubble’s cameras capture grayscale images through different color filters. Specialists later combine these to create the full-color representations we see, which are often enhanced to highlight scientific features.
- It’s the most powerful telescope ever: While revolutionary, ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics can now match some of its clarity in certain wavelengths, and the James Webb Space Telescope is more powerful for infrared astronomy.
- It’s near stars and nebulae: It’s actually in very low Earth orbit, just above the atmosphere. It circles our planet every 95 minutes.
- Its images are real-time: Observations are planned weeks or months in advance, and processing the data into a usable image can take from weeks to months after its collected.
How You Can Access Hubble’s Images
All of Hubble’s data becomes public after a proprietary period (usually one year). You can explore it yourself!
- Visit the official Hubble Space Telescope website run by NASA and ESA.
- Go to the “Media” section for the latest news, images, and videos.
- Use the “Hubble’s Catalog” portal (like the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes) to search for raw and processed data on specific objects.
- Follow Hubble’s social media accounts for daily stunning images and explanations.
Hubble’s journey hasn’t been without its problems, like the initial mirror flaw that required a corrective optics mission. But overcoming that challenge set a prescedent for in-space servicing and demonstrated human ingenuity. The telescope has far exceeded its original 15-year life expectancy. Every week, it continues to make observations that challenge theories and reveal new wonders, ensuring its place as one of history’s most important scientific instruments. It has answered fundamental questions we didn’t even know how to ask when it was launched.
FAQ Section
What is the main purpose of the Hubble telescope?
Its main purpose is to be a long-term, general-purpose observatory in space for astronomy. It provides clear, detailed images and data across ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light to study everything from our solar system to the distant universe.
How is the Hubble Space Telescope used by scientists?
Scientists use it to gather precise data that can’t be obtained from the ground. They use its images to measure the shapes and sizes of objects, and its spectrographs to determine their composition, temperature, and motion. This data is used to test theories in astrophysics.
What are 5 things the Hubble telescope has discovered?
1. The accelerating expansion of the universe (dark energy).
2. The age of the universe (13.8 billion years).
3. Protoplanetary disks where planets form.
4. Supermassive black holes in galaxy centers are common.
5. Detailed atmospheric components of exoplanets.
Can you see the Hubble telescope from Earth?
Yes! With the naked eye, it looks like a bright, fast-moving star. You can use websites like “Spot the Station” (which also tracks Hubble) to find out when it will pass over your location.
Why is Hubble better than telescopes on Earth?
It’s above Earth’s atmosphere, which blurs light and blocks certain wavelengths like ultraviolet. This gives Hubble a consistently sharp view and access to a full range of light that doesn’t reach the ground.
What will happen to Hubble when it is decommissioned?
NASA will safely deorbit it at the end of its life, likely guiding it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere over an ocean. Some components may survive re-entry, so a controlled descent is critical. No current spacecraft are capable of going to retrieve it.