CAJ 6 - The Importance of The Hubble Telescope (post 1)

From Greek philosophers to scientists of the Renaissance, all looked up at the sky to find answers for questions yet undiscovered. The Universe and its undiscovered mysteries were always a major source of inspiration and one of the biggest question of humankind.

When in 1990 the NASA launched its first space telescope named Hubble, we came one step closer to the answer of our questions. The launch of the telescope marked the most significant advance in astronomy and planetary science since Galileo directed his telescope to the sky.

Everything began in 1962, when the National Academies of Science put forward a request for developing a space telescope. Only in the 70's did the NASA devote attention to this idea. Bob O'Dell was the first project scientist of the Hubble project, which at time was not even funded. Many years O'Dell worked tirelessly on promoting the idea to the NASA but they did not believe in the feasibility and the advantage of observing our Galaxy outside of our atmosphere. Finally in 1983 the Space Telescope Science Institute was established and seven years later they launched Hubble, the first telescope in space.

As the mirror of the telescope had the wrong shape on the edges, the first pictures appeared blurry. Another problem, which the scientists did not consider, was the shaking of the telescope due to the strong blow of solar winds. Luckily the telescope was designed to be serviceable constantly. Therefore, three years later in 1993 the mirror of the telescope was upgraded and the image appeared sharp. Since then the telescope has been upgraded numerous times and is always kept up-to-date with recent inventions.

The contribution of the Hubble telescope is unquestionable. Many discoveries and  theories emerging from those discoveries can be attributed to it. Hubble provided evidence that the Universe's expansion was accelerating. This was a milestone for physics, as till then scientists believed that it was slowing. This was achieved by observing a dying star. By observing this supernova, scientists could calculate its distance that was much farther away than predicted.
For physics this meant a discovery as important as General Relativity.

Connected to the observation of supernovas, the Hubble telescope also contributed to another big discovery. Dark matter is one of the biggest clues of science. The Hubble Telescope was constantly observing the violent death of stars. The light of these dying stars was spotted and their distance could be calculated. These distances are bigger than expected and without the added force of dark matter, the Universe could not expand so fast.

The Hubble Telescope revealed us how unbelievably complex and beautiful our Universe is. It captured images of Galaxies and dying Stars and phenomenoms that are still unexplained.

More about the importance, discoveries and achievements of the Hubble Telescope will follow.