1. Submitted to: Dr. Ravinder Aggrawal
Submitted by: Sarah Ali Hasan
Roll No. : 801251019
Date : Nov 19th 2013
2. Overview :
One of the technical wonders of the modern world. Hubble Space
Telescope is an orbiting astronomical observatory operating from the
near-infrared into the ultraviolet.
350 miles above Earth, Hubble sees farther and sharper than any
previous telescope.
Its discoveries have revolutionized all areas of astronomy, has
imaged more than 30,000 celestial objects, snapping more than
570,000 pictures.
3. • The reason Hubble is in orbit around the Earth, rather than on the
ground, is to get above the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere causes blurring of the images,
which is avoided when the telescope is above the atmosphere.
• Also the atmosphere absorbs some wavelengths of light, a
complication that is also avoided by being in orbit.
• Finally, some light is lost when it passes through the atmosphere. By
being in orbit above the atmosphere, Hubble avoids this light loss
and can see very faint objects.
4. • Hubble is a large astronomical telescope that was placed in orbit
around Earth. It is about the size of a school bus and a mass of about
11,000 kg.
• Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit (so it can be serviced by the Space
Shuttle).
• It Orbits the Earth about once every 96 minutes. Each orbit is about 1
hour in sunlight (orbit day) and 1/2 hour in darkness (orbit night).
• Hubble is designed to make observations of astronomical objects in
visible light, near infrared, and near ultraviolet wavelengths—it can
observe wavelengths in the range of 100–2500 nm. (Visible light lies
within this range, from 400–700 nm.)
• Hubble is able to look deep into space; up to 14 billion light years
away!
5. Hubble's instruments:
No existence for eyepiece. Instead, the images observed by
Hubble are sent to a complement of scientific instruments
(cameras and spectrometers)). Each of which can perform its
own analysis and relay the resulting spectra and images to the
ground by radio.
Right from the very beginning the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
has been designed to be a new type of mission — a permanent
space-based observatory that could be regularly visited by the
Space Shuttle and serviced.
6. Present Instruments:
WFC3 - Wide Field Camera 3
COS - Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
ACS - Advanced Camera for Surveys (repaired during SM4)
STIS - Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (repaired during SM4)
NICMOS - Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer. (not currently
operational)
FGS - Fine Guidance Sensors
Former Instruments:
FOC - Faint Object Camera
WFPC2 - Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
COSTAR - Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
WFPC1 - Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1
FOS - Faint Object Spectrograph
GHRS - Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
HSP - High Speed Photometer
7. On board Hubble all the instruments are placed in the so-called
radial instrument bays and axial bays.
Four radial bays are placed around the sides of the telescope, and
are currently occupied by three Fine Guidance Sensors and the Wide
Field Camera 3 (WFC3). These instruments are shaped roughly like
quarter circles.
Four axial bays behind the mirror at the end of the telescope carry
rectangular box-shaped instruments. These bays are currently
occupied by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the Advanced
Camera for Surveys (ACS), the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object
Spectrometer (NICMOS).
10. Hubble’s optics is all based on mirrors(no lenses); i.e. reflecting
telescope.
• Newtonian telescope → Cassegrain telescope → Ritchey-Chr´etien
Cassegrain design
Hubble’s primary mirror has a diameter of D=2.4 m (94.5 inches), &
has a focal length of: f =57.6 m. Another parameter often used to
characterize astronomical telescopes is the so-called f-number,
which is defined to be the ratio of the focal length to the
aperture diameter:
For Hubble, the primary mirror has an f-number of (f/24).
11. Resolution of an astronomical telescope is defined to be the smallest
angular separation of two point sources of light that will still allow
them to be resolved as individual point sources.
The exact point at which two adjacent diffraction patterns are
overlapping “too much” is a bit vague, but one commonly used
definition is the Rayleigh criterion.
Under the Rayleigh criterion, the smallest angular separation θ that
two point sources can have and still be resolvable as two individual
point sources is:
• Where θ is the angular resolution in radians, λ is the wavelength of
the light, and D is the diameter of the aperture of the instrument.
12. For the Hubble Space Telescope , D=2.4 m, and λ varies between
100 and 2500 nanometers. Using Rayleigh criterion, we can plot
the angular resolution of Hubble as a function of wavelength.
Hubble’s resolution in
visible light is about
0.05 arcseconds
(1 arcsec = 1/60 arcmint
= 1/3600 degree). This
means, if HST was in
Washington DC, it could
Distinguish 2 objects in
NY City if they were separated by a distance of just 3 inches:
13. Hubble’s Timeline
Edwin Hubble and the Hooker Telescope 1918 .
Conception of space telescope 1923 by Herman
Cberth.
The LST- Large Space Telescope 1969 by
suggested by Lyman Spitzer.
14. Congress Approves funding for The Hubble Space
Telescope1977.
• 1978Astronauts begin training for space
telescope missions
• 1979Work begins on the telescope’s 2.4-metre
mirror
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) begins
operations in Baltimore, Maryland 1981.
The Large Space Telescope is renamed Hubble 1983
, after Edwin P. Hubble, the astronomer who
proved the existence of other galaxies and
discovered the first evidence for an expanding
universe.
Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility
(ST-ECF) begins operations in Garching, Munich
1984.
15. Work on building Hubble is completed 1985.
Challenger disaster on 1986 puts all Shuttle flights
on hold Launch of Hubble delayed .
Launch: Shuttle Discovery (STS-31) launched on 24
April 1990. Hubble deployed on 25 April 1990.
-Spherical aberration discovered in the Hubble
primary mirror, 25 June 1990.
-COSTAR approved: The creation of a complex
package of five optical mirror pairs to rectify the
spherical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror.
16. First Servicing Mission (STS-61) launched on 2
December 1993 (Endeavour).
• COSTAR corrective optics installed, replacing HSP
(High Speed Photometer).
• WFPC2 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2)
replaced WFPC1 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera
1).
Hubble takes pictures of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 as
it hits Jupiter in 1994.
Hubble takes the famous “pillars of creation” photo
of the Eagle Nebula 1995.
The first Hubble Deep Field is released, showing the
unimaginable number of galaxies in the Universe
1996.
• Hubble resolves quasar host galaxies.
17. Servicing Mission 2 (STS-82) launched on 11 February
1997 (Discovery).
• STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph)
replaced FOS (Faint Object Spectrograph).
• NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object
Spectrograph) replaces GHRS (Goddard High
Resolution Spectrograph).
HST Orbital Systems Test (HOST - STS-95) launched on
29 October 1998 (Discovery). The HOST mission was
flown to test new technologies to be used in Hubble
on the Third Servicing Mission and beyond.
Servicing Mission 3A (STS-103) launched on 19
December 1999 (Discovery).
• Replacement of gyroscopes.
• General maintenance (no science instruments
replaced).
Hubble observations detect the elements in the
atmosphere of exoplanet HD 209458b in 2001.
18. Servicing Mission 3B launched on 1 March 2002.
• Installation of ACS.
• Installation of NICMOS Cooling System (NCS).
• Installation of new Solar Panels.
Power supply on STIS fails in 2004.
• Also Hubble Ultra Deep Field released.
Hubble images two previously unknown moons orbiting
Pluto in 2005.
Hubble observations show that the dwarf planet Eris is
bigger than Pluto in 2006.
The power supply on the Advanced Camera for
Surveys, one of Hubble’s key instruments, fails in
2007.
19. Hubble photographs exoplanet Fomalhaut b, one of
the first to be confirmed through direct imaging in
2008.
• Hubble completes its 100,000th orbit around the
Earth.
Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125) launched on 11 May
2009.
• Installation of WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3).
• Installation of COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph).
• STIS and ACS repaired.
• Gyroscopes and batteries replaced.
• Soft Capture Mechanism installed.
• NOBLs (New Outer Blanket Layers) installed.
Hubble images show distant galaxies with likely red
shifts greater than 8, showing the Universe as it
was when it was less than a tenth of its current
age in 2010.
21. In 2011 Hubble makes its millionth observation,
a spectroscopic analysis of the exoplanet
HAT-P-7b .
10 000th scientific paper using Hubble data is
published, identifying the faintest
supernova ever to be associated with a long-duration
gamma-ray burst.
May 2012 witnessed the hit discovery of
NASA; four billion years from now: the next
major cosmic event to affect our galaxy,
sun, and solar system: the titanic collision
of our Milky Way galaxy with the
neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
22. • This illustration shows the collision paths of our Milky Way galaxy
and the Andromeda galaxy. The galaxies are moving toward each
other under the inexorable pull of gravity between them. Also
shown is a smaller galaxy, Triangulum, which may be part of the
smashup. (Credit: NASA; ESA; A. Feild and R. van der Marel,
STScI).
Hinweis der Redaktion
Fig.(1) Hubble telescope in its orbit :(a) at night & (b) in day light.