Hubble Space Telescope: What It Has Shown Us
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VOICE OVER: Rebecca Brayton
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on 24 April, 1990. This tool, built as a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, is one of humanity's most important tools in discovering the Universe. Since its start, it has shown us distant galaxies, nebulae, and has even given us a clear idea of the Earth's age. It has answered some of the most lingering questions in astronomy, and is helping us discover whether life exists outside our planet. In this video, http://www.WatchMojo.com takes a look at some of the Hubble's most notable and extraordinary discoveries.
What the Hubble Telescope Has Shown Us
The Hubble Space Telescope has allowed us to study our own solar system. The information we have gleaned about our planetary neighbors helps us better understand earth. The Hubble is responsible for answering long-standing astronomical questions, as well as prompting new theories based on its results. Hubble has also provided us with the most detailed images of the Universe’s farthest known galaxies.
One of its most significant discoveries was to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding, which helps define the age of the universe. It also gives us a glimpse at the fate of the universe.
The Hubble is helping us come closer to discovering whether life exists or is able to exist elsewhere in the Universe. The telescope has captured storms on Neptune, and dwarf planets at the edge of our Solar System.
The Hubble was able to confirm the longstanding conjecture that all galaxies feature black holes at their centers. It also provided evidence of the presence of planets found outside our solar system, which revolve around sun-like stars.
In 1994, the Hubble photographed a comet colliding with Jupiter. Scientists have estimated this occurrence only happens once every few centuries. The event helped scientists understand Jupiter’s atmosphere, and it also shed light on the origins of planets, as it is thought they began with the collision of matter.
Perhaps one of the Hubble’s most famous photographs, the Pillars of Creation were captured in 1995. The “Pillars” were located in the Eagle Nebula – a region found six thousand five hundred light years away. The photo of the “Pillars” depicts the formation of stars incubated in clouds of gas and dust.
The Hubble deep field image is often deemed the most important photograph ever taken by humanity. Scientists chose a section of sky that was devoid of Milk Way stars and pointed the Hubble in that direction. What they found was almost 3000 galaxies. Some of these galaxies were the farthest and youngest ever found, which in turn has caused this photo to become important in the study of the early universe.
For astronomers and laypeople alike, the Hubble has shown us just how immense the Universe actually is.
