The Hubble was also crucial for confirming that, contrary to what many scientists previously believed, the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.Īlthough the Hubble is still working, far beyond its life expectancy, the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to add to its viewing range. It provided stunning and colorful images of gas clouds that reminded us of animals, and of galaxies of all sorts.īut the Hubble gave us much more than pictures: It enabled us to establish a better estimate of the age of the universe - about 13.8 billion years. The legacy of the Hubbleįor many of us, the emblematic Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was our window into space. It showed us how incredibly huge, dazzling and sometimes weird and even scary the universe can be. The accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope provide some convincing reasons. This results in sharper and higher-resolution images.īut why are space telescopes important, and why should we care? Telescopes can be found on hills and in deserts, but also mounted onto satellites.īeing in space means losing the distortion from the Earth's atmosphere. And the bigger the mirror, the more powerful the telescope is. Telescopes allow us to see faraway objects. Most use mirrors to gather and focus light. It's likely to drastically change our understanding of the cosmos. That's exactly what the new and impressive James Webb Space Telescope, finally (re)scheduled for launch on December 25, 2021, promises just that.
Now imagine you were offered the chance to see such pictures for the whole universe. Then someone comes and offers to reveal some earlier pictures of you as a baby. Your life has been captured only from the time you were already out of babyhood. You arrive to the time of the planet pinata-party photos from your fourth birthday, and even get to see some of yourself as a toddler.īut at that point you realize there are no baby pictures. You start from the back - that is, at the newest photos.
Imagine you are flipping through the pages of your old family photo album.
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