 |
April 25th marks the anniversary of the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, first launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, this giant telescope has provided dramatic cosmic images and invaluable information about our universe that has profoundly changed the science of astronomy.
So in honor of the Hubble Space Telescope's 10th anniversary, we're offering all our telescopes at up to 30% off. But hurry...because while this special offer is designed to leave you with stars in your eyes, savings this astronomical are bound to come back down to earth. Sale prices effective April 29 through May 15.
A Visionary Plan
The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons and is approximately the size of a school bus. It looks like a five-story tower of stacked silver tubes. Each tube holds specific telescope equipment, including focusing mirrors, computers, imaging instruments and pointing and control mechanisms. Solar panels extending from the telescope generate electricity and hold antennas for communication.
Putting Things Into Perspective
Strength In Numbers
More Choices. Better Prices. Guaranteed. |
Conceived in the 1940s, the Hubble was referred to as the Large Space Telescope; however, it was not designed and built until the late 1970s and early '80s when Congress approved the decision for the development. The building of the telescope was a cooperative venture between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It was initially designed to have a 15-year life span with the ability to be maintained while in the Earth's atmosphere, but because of contamination and structural concerns associated with the telescope's return to Earth, NASA later determined that on-orbit servicing would be most beneficial. Currently, maintenance on the telescope is performed every three years.
The Hubble Space Telescope collects starlight with an 8-foot-diameter mirror. The telescope's instruments include cameras and spectrographs that are utilized to gather data about the universe. The cameras operate much in the same way as video cameras while the spectrographs act like prisms, separating starlight into a myriad of different colors. By studying the colors of light from a star, astronomers can obtain such information as temperature, motion, composition and age.
Once information on a star or other astronomical object is gathered by the cameras and spectrographs, the Hubble Space Telescope converts the data into a large string of numbers that are beamed to Earth in the form of radio signals. These radio signals are gathered by satellites and relayed to the Goddard Space Flight Center. In turn, the same signals are then relayed to the Space Telescope Science Institute where they are decoded into pictures and data. Because a single day of data would fill an entire encyclopedia, information is stored on optical computer discs.