What are the advantages of space based telescopes?


Space-based telescopes have the advantage of being above the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere. In addition, there are many wavelengths from the electromagnetic spectrum that do not reach Earth because they are absorbed or reflected by the Earth's atmosphere. Only the wavelengths of visible light, a portion of infrared, and part of the radio wavelengths reach Earth. To observe other parts of the spectrum - ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays or infrared, telescopes have to be outside of Earth's atmosphere. Studying gamma-rays for example, helps astronomers learn more about things like blazars, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars and solar flares than would be possible with just optical telescopes. Similarly, studying x-rays gives invaluable information about the very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and the matter around black holes. The benefits of getting clean, unblurred optical images as well as the ability to observe other parts of the spectrum are worth the expense of putting telescopes in space.