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Idea of a telescope into orbit
German scientist Hermann Oberth, wrote “Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen" which included ideas about having a telescope on a rocket, in space. -
Difficulties with early telescopes
Astronomer Edwin Hubble used the 100-inch hooker telescope on Mount Wilson to discover what’s beyond our Milky Way. Some difficulties did occur, the atmosphere made it hard for Hubble to clearly see the universe. -
First Concept of Hubble Telescope
Astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer first thought of the idea of the Hubble Telescope in 1946. He wrote about the benefits of the telescope. -
Hubble Telescope was approved by NASA
Spitzer’s invention of his telescope was approved in 1968 by NASA, because of difficulties, it did not launch until 1990. -
First planning of the construction of the Hubble Telescope
The European Space Agency started to work with NASA to discuss the plan of the construction of the Hubble Telescope. -
Construction of the Hubble Telescope
After the U.S. Congress permitted it’s construction, it was named after Edwin Hubble. -
Launch of the first space telescope
The first space telescope was launched on April 24, 1990. It cost about 1.5 billion. -
First picture the Hubble Telescope took
On May 20, 1990, the Hubble telescope took its first photo of space. -
Space shuttle launched to fix earlier problems.
On Hubble’s first launch, it didn’t have enough mirrors. NASA space shuttle Endeavour launched to attempt to fix Hubble’s problems by connecting missing mirrors. -
Eagle Nebula discovered
In 1995, the Hubble telescope took a picture of Eagle Nebula. The Eagle Nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust 7,000 light-years away from Earth. -
More space shuttles launched to repair problems
Space shuttles restored the HST’s gyroscopes and added new instruments. -
Last space shuttle to service the HS
The last space shuttle launched in 2009 to install a new camera, WFC3, spectrograph, and the COS. -
Star known as Kohoutek 4-55 in the process of dying.
Kohoutek 4-55 is expanding and burning everything that is surrounding it. When it gets to earth, the star will burn the planet. The Hubble Telescope has given us its first glimpse of the future of what might be the end of world. -
Age of the universe discovered by the Hubble Telescope
In 2013, the Hubble Telescope discovered the age of the universe by using Hubble to measure the brightness of Cepheid variable stars. The Cepheid star will not appear as shiny if it is farther away. This gave researchers an easy way to measure how distant its host galaxy is to earth. -
New space telescope plans to be in orbit by 2018
The James Webb Space Telescope will start to orbit by 2018. This newer, more expensive, and more powerful telescope will be as big as the size of a tennis court, and its mirrors would be seven times larger the diameter of Hubble’s mirrors.
