Tẹ́lískópù Òfurufú Hubble

Tẹ́lískópù Òfurufú HubbletabiAgbéwọ̀ọ́kán Òfurufú Hubble(Hubble Space Telescope;HSTtabiTOH) jeteliskopu ofurufukan to je gbigbe lo sinu onaayipo peluOko Alobokan ni 1990, to si wa nibe latigba na. O je teliskopu to nienu-iwole imole2.4-meter (7.9 ft), o si wa nionaayipo isale Aye, awon irinse mererin pataki Hubble le sakiyesi ni itankaeti inuaro,alafojuri, atieti inupupa. Teliskopu na je sisoloruko funatorawoEdwin Hubble.
Ona-ayipo Hubble to wa niwaju ibi idilonaojuayika Ayegba laaye lati ya awon aworan to han kedere lai si inaeyin. AworanPapa Ijin De leHubble, fun apere lo je aworanafojuri inato kunrere julo fun ohun to jinna to je yiya ni foto ni agbala aye. Opo awon akiyesi Hubble ti fa ojutu isoro ninu sayensifisiksionirawo, bisise bi agbala aye se unfe sigerege.
Bo tilejepe ki se teliskopu ofurufu akoko, Hubble je ikan ninu awon to tobijulo ati to se e mulo fun orisirisi ise, ati ohun iwadi to se pataki ati ohun ibasepo igboro funitorawo. TOH je kiko latowo ile-ise eto ofurufu AmerikaNASA, pelu ifikun latodoIle-ise Ofurufu Europe, o si unje mimusise latowoSpace Telescope Science Institute. Teliskopu na je ikan ninuawon Ibi Isakiyesi Gbangbati NASA, lapapo moCompton Gamma Ray Observatory,Chandra X-ray Observatory, atiTeliskopu Ofurufu Spitzer.
Awon teliskopu ofurufu je dida laba lati odun 1923. Owo fun iko Hubble bere sini je kikojo ni ewadun 1970s, pelu ireti pe yio gbera ni 1983, sugbon o ku seyin nitori isoro isise, inawo atiijambaChallenger. Nigba to gbeyin gbera ni 1990, awon onimo sayensi ri pe jigi iwaju re ko duro daada, eyi fa ko mo sise boseye. Iranlose se atunse eyi ni 1993.
Hubble ni teliskopu kan soso to je sise lati se atunse re ninu ofurufu latowo awon arinlofurufu. Larin 1993 ati 2002, iranlose merin se atunse, isodotun ati won se idipo awon sistemu ninu teliskopu na; iranlose karun je fifagile fun abo leyinijambaColumbia. Sugbon leyiniforowero igboroto waye, oludari NASAMike Griffinfase siiranlose atunse to gbeyin, eyi waye ni 2009. Ireti ni pe teliskopu na yio sise titi di 2014 o kereju. Eyi ti yio ropo re niTeliskopu Ofurufu James Webb(JWST), eyi yio gbera ni 2018 tabi leyin igba yi.
Ni 1923,Hermann Oberth— to je gbigba bi baba ise roketi ayeodeoni, lapapo moRobert H. GoddardatiKonstantin Tsiolkovsky— setewejadeDie Rakete zu den Planetenräumen("Roketi sinu Ofurufu Planeti"; "The Rocket into Planetary Space"), to fenu ba bawo ni teliskopu se le je mu jijulo sinu ona-ayika Aye pelu roketi.
Itan Teliskopu Ofurufu Hubble se wa seyin de odun 1946, nigbatiatorawoLyman Spitzerko iwe-ayoka kan to unje "Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory" (Awon anfani itorawo ibi-isakiyesi ojuorun).Ninu re, o jiroro nipa awon anfan pataki meji ti ibi-isakiyesi to budo si ofurufu ni lori awon teliskopu to budo si ori ile. Akoko,igbehan onigun(ijinna kekerejulo nibi ti awon ohunkan se le e damo) yio je sisaropin lasan latowoigedakoja, kaka ko je latowo iji ni oju-ayika, to unje ki awon irawo o tan yinrinyinrin, to je mimo biiwolatowo awon atorawo. Lasiko na awon teliskopu ibudo ori ile igbana ni igbehan ti ko din ju 0.5–1.0arcsecondslo, ti a ba fiwe mo igbehan 0.05 arcsec ti igedakoja saropin yio ni fun teliskopu pelujigiti idakoja re je 2.5 m. Ekeji, teliskopu ibudo ofurufu le sakiyesi imoleoninupupaationinuaro, ti won le sonu soju-ayika fun teliskopu ibudo ori ile.
Spitzer lo gbogbo asiko ise re si pipe fun igbedide teliskopu ofurufu. Ni 1962, ijabo iwadiAkademi awon Sayensi Orile-ede Amerikada aba igbedide teliskopu ofurufu gege bi apaeto ofurufu, ati ni 1965 Spitzer je yiyansipo bi olori igbimo ti ise re je lati setoka ona sayensi fun teliskopu ofurufu ninla.
Itorawo ibudo ofurufu ti bere diedie leyinOgun Agbaye 2k, bi awon onimo sayensi se lo awon igbedide to ti waye ninu oroiseonarọ́kẹ̀tì.Ìgbàjá-àwọ̀onínúaró àkọ́kọ́ tiÒrùnjẹ́ rírí ní 1946,NASA sì ṣègbéraOrbiting Solar Observatory(OSO) láti gba àwọn ìgbàjá UV, ìtànká-X (X-ray), àti ìtànká gamma ní 1962.Tẹ́lískópù ọ̀nà-àyípo òrùnkan jẹ́ gbígbérá ní 1962 látọwọ́ Ilẹ̀ọba Aṣọ̀kan bíi apáètò òfurufú Ariel, bẹ́ẹ̀sìni ní 1966NASAṣègbéra ìránlọṣeOrbiting Astronomical Observatory(OAO) àkọ́kọ́. Bátìrì OAO-1 kùnà lẹ̀yìn ọjọ́ mẹ́ta, èyí fi òpin sí ìránlọṣe náà. OAO-2 tó rọ́pò rẹ̀ ṣe àkíyèsí onínúaró àwọnìràwọ̀àtigáláksìláti ìgbà ìgbéra rẹ̀ ní 1968 títí di 1972, èyí pẹ́ ju ọdún kan tí wọ́n gbèrò fun lọ.
Àwọn ìránlọṣe OSO àti OAO fihàn bí àwọn àkíyèsí ibùdó òfurufú ṣe ṣe pàtàkì sí nínú ìtòràwọ̀, bó sì ṣe di 1968, NASA ṣàgbédìde àwọn ètò gidi fúntẹ́lískópù alátànpadàpẹ̀lú jígí tí ìdákọjá rẹ̀ jẹ́ 3 m, tó jẹ́ mímọ̀ nígbà náà bíi Large Orbiting Telescope tàbí Large Space Telescope (LST), tí yíò gbéra ní 1979. Awon eto yi tenumo bi o se se pataki fun awon iranlose itoju pelu awon eniyan lo si teliskopu na lati ri pe iru eto alewo na ni emi ojo pipe, besini igbedide lasiko kanna eto fun and the concurrent development of plans for the reusableoko aloboalatunmulo fihan pe oroiseona ti yio gba eyi laye ko ni pe waye.
Ni 1974,Kongresijawo inawo fun eto teliskopu na.Nitorie opo awon atorawo bere ipade pelu awonasojuatialagba asofinlati ri pe owo ko ja lori igbedidide re. Nigbeyin Kongresi pinu lati da inawo re si abo.
Nitori aito owo lo fa tiEuropean Space Agencyse pinu lati pese owo ati irinse fun teliskopu na, atibatiri olorunti yio fun ni agbara, ati awon osise lati sise lori teliskopu na ni Amerika, fun eyi won yio fun awon atorawo ara Europe ni 15% asiko isakiyesi lori teliskopu na.Nigbeyin Kongresi fi ase si ipese owo to toUS$36,000,000 fun 1978, be sini iyaeto LST bere, pelu ero lati gbera ni 1983.Ni 1983 teliskopu na je sisolorukofunEdwin Hubble, eni to sewari ikan ninu awon awari sayensi orundun 20k nigbato sawari peagbala ayeunfesi.
Leyin ti iseowo Teliskopu Ofurufu na ti gba ase, ise bere kiakia lori re, o si je pinpin larin opo awon ile-ise.Marshall Space Flight Center(MSFC) lo gba ase lati daeto, sagbedide ati ko teliskopu na, nigbatiGoddard Space Flight Centergba ase isejanu apapo awon irinse sayensi ati gbongan ibi ikojanu ori ile fun iranlose na.MSFC gbe ise fun ile-ise isiseiriranPerkin-Elmerlati daeto ati ko Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) ati Fine Guidance Sensors fun teliskopu na.Lockheedgba ise lati ko ati searomo oko-ofurufu ti teliskopu na yio duro si.
Fun iworan, TOH unloCassegrain reflectortiafowoda Ritchey-Chrétien, bo se je fun opo awon teliskopu isise miran. Afowoda yi, pelu jigi atenikun meji (hyperbolic mirrors), gbajumo fun iseaworan todara lori ibi iriran to fe gidi, pelu ainianfani pe awon bi awon jigi na se ri soro lati da ati danwo. Jigi ati sistemu onitiworan ti teliskopu na ni ni won unso bi yio se sise daradara si, be sini won je fifowoda ni iye pato. Awon teliskopu onitiworan saba ni jigi to ti je didan to niisegeegebi ti idamewaibuiruilaitanmole afojuri, sugbon Teliskopu Ofurufu yi unje lilo fun isakiyesi lati itanmole afojuri de oninuawoaro (ibu-iruila kere) be sini o gbodo nidiffraction limitedpato lati  le lo gbogbo anfani ti ayiko ofurufu pese. Nitori eyi, jigi re gbodo je didan de isegeere 10nanometers, bi tabi 1/65 ibu-iruila itanmole awopupa.Ni apa ibu-iruila togun, OTA na je fifowoda pelu pe IR re yio sise boseye daada — fun apere, awon jigi ni igbonasi toduro laimi (won si loworo, bi 15 °C). Eyi fa ala si ise Hubble bi teliskopu oninuawopupa.
Perkin-Elmer intended to use custom-built and extremely sophisticatedcomputer-controlled polishing machinesto grind the mirror to the required shape.However, in case their cutting-edge technology ran into difficulties, NASA demanded that PE sub-contract toKodakto construct a back-up mirror using traditional mirror-polishing techniques.(The team of Kodak andItekalso bid on the original mirror polishing work. Their bid called for the two companies to double-check each other's work, which would have almost certainly caught the polishing error that later causedsuch problems.) The Kodak mirror is now on permanent display at theSmithsonian Institution.An Itek mirror built as part of the effort is now used in the 2.4 m telescope at theMagdalena Ridge Observatory.
Construction of the Perkin-Elmer mirror began in 1979, starting with a blank manufactured byCorningfrom their ultra-low expansionglass. To keep the mirror's weight to a minimum it consisted of inch-thick top and bottom plates sandwiching ahoneycomblattice. Perkin-Elmer simulatedmicrogravityby supporting the mirror on both sides with 138 rods that exerted varying amounts of force. This ensured that the mirror's final shape would be correct and to specification when finally deployed. Mirror polishing continued until May 1981. NASA reports at the time questioned Perkin-Elmer's managerial structure, and the polishing began to slip behind schedule and over budget. To save money, NASA halted work on the back-up mirror and put the launch date of the telescope back to October 1984.The mirror was completed by the end of 1981; it was washed using 2,400 gallons (9,100 L) of hot,deionized waterand then received a reflective coating ofaluminum65 nm-thick and a protective coating ofmagnesium fluoride25 nm-thick.
Doubts continued to be expressed about Perkin-Elmer's competence on a project of this importance, as their budget and timescale for producing the rest of the OTA continued to inflate. In response to a schedule described as "unsettled and changing daily", NASA postponed the launch date of the telescope until April 1985. Perkin-Elmer's schedules continued to slip at a rate of about one month per quarter, and at times delays reached one day for each day of work. NASA was forced to postpone the launch date until March and then September 1986. By this time, the total project budget had risen to US$1.175 billion.
The spacecraft in which the telescope and instruments were to be housed was another major engineering challenge. It would have to withstand frequent passages from direct sunlight into the darkness of Earth'sshadow, which would cause major changes in temperature, while being stable enough to allow extremely accurate pointing of the telescope. A shroud ofmulti-layer insulationkeeps the temperature within the telescope stable, and surrounds a light aluminum shell in which the telescope and instruments sit. Within the shell, agraphite-epoxyframe keeps the working parts of the telescope firmly aligned.Because graphite composites arehygroscopic, there was a risk that water vapor absorbed by the truss while in Lockheed's clean room would later be expressed in the vacuum of space; the telescope's instruments would be covered in ice. To reduce that risk, a nitrogen gas purge was performed before launching the telescope into space.
While construction of the spacecraft in which the telescope and instruments would be housed proceeded somewhat more smoothly than the construction of the OTA, Lockheed still experienced some budget and schedule slippage, and by the summer of 1985, construction of the spacecraft was 30% over budget and three months behind schedule. An MSFC report said that Lockheed tended to rely on NASA directions rather than take their own initiative in the construction.
When launched, the HST carried five scientific instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC), Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), High Speed Photometer (HSP), Faint Object Camera (FOC) and the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS). WF/PC was a high-resolution imaging device primarily intended for optical observations. It was built by NASA'sJet Propulsion Laboratory, and incorporated a set of 48filtersisolatingspectral linesof particular astrophysical interest. The instrument contained eightcharge-coupled device(CCD) chips divided between two cameras, each using four CCDs.  Each CCD has a resolution of 0.64 megapixels.The "wide field camera" (WFC) covered a large angular field at the expense of resolution, while the "planetary camera" (PC) took images at a longer effectivefocal lengththan the WF chips, giving it a greater magnification.
The GHRS was aspectrographdesigned to operate in the ultraviolet. It was built by the Goddard Space Flight Center and could achieve aspectral resolutionof 90,000.Also optimized for ultraviolet observations were the FOC and FOS, which were capable of the highest spatial resolution of any instruments on Hubble. Rather than CCDs these three instruments usedphoton-counting digicons as their detectors. The FOC was constructed by ESA, while theUniversity of California, San Diegoand theMartin Mariettacorporation built the FOS.
The final instrument was the HSP, designed and built at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. It was optimized for visible and ultraviolet light observations ofvariable starsand other astronomical objects varying in brightness. It could take up to 100,000 measurements per second with aphotometricaccuracy of about 2% or better.
HST's guidance system can also be used as a scientific instrument. Its threeFine Guidance Sensors(FGS) are primarily used to keep the telescope accurately pointed during an observation, but can also be used to carry out extremely accurateastrometry; measurements accurate to within 0.0003 arcseconds have been achieved.
TheSpace Telescope Science Institute(STScI) is responsible for the scientific operation of the telescope and delivery of data products to astronomers. STScI is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy(AURA) and is physically located inBaltimore,Marylandon the Homewood campus ofJohns Hopkins University, one of the 33 US universities and seven international affiliates that make up the AURA consortium. STScI was established in 1981after something of a power struggle between NASA and the scientific community at large. NASA had wanted to keep this function "in-house", but scientists wanted it to be based in anacademicestablishment.TheSpace Telescope European Coordinating Facility(ST-ECF), established atGarching bei MünchennearMunichin 1984, provides similar support for European astronomers.
One rather complex task that falls to STScI is scheduling observations for the telescope.Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit so that it can be reached by the space shuttle for servicing missions, but this means that most astronomical targets areoccultedby the Earth for slightly less than half of each orbit. Observations cannot take place when the telescope passes through theSouth Atlantic Anomalydue to elevatedradiationlevels, and there are also sizable exclusion zones around the Sun (precluding observations ofMercury), Moon and Earth. The solar avoidance angle is about 50°, which is specified to keep sunlight from illuminating any part of the OTA. Earth and Moon avoidance is to keep bright light out of the FGSs and to keep scattered light from entering the instruments. If the FGSs are turned off, however, the Moon and Earth can be observed. Earth observations were used very early in the program to generate flat-fields for the WFPC1 instrument. There is a so-called continuous viewing zone (CVZ), at roughly 90 degrees to the plane of Hubble's orbit, in which targets are not occulted for long periods. Due to theprecessionof the orbit, the location of the CVZ moves slowly over a period of eight weeks. Because thelimbof the Earth is always within about 30° of regions within the CVZ, the brightness of scatteredearthshinemay be elevated for long periods during CVZ observations.
Because Hubble orbits in the upper atmosphere, its orbit changes over time in a way that is not accurately predictable. The density of the upper atmosphere varies according to many factors, and this means that Hubble's predicted position for six weeks' time could be in error by up to 4,000 km. Observation schedules are typically finalized only a few days in advance, as a longer lead time would mean there was a chance that the target would be unobservable by the time it was due to be observed.
Engineering support for HST is provided by NASA and contractor personnel at the Goddard Space Flight Center inGreenbelt, Maryland, 48 km south of the STScI. Hubble's operation is monitored 24 hours per day by four teams of flight controllers who make up Hubble's Flight Operations Team.
By early 1986, the planned launch date of October that year looked feasible, but theChallenger accidentbrought the U.S. space program to a halt, grounding the space shuttle fleet and forcing the launch of Hubble to be postponed for several years. The telescope had to be kept in a clean room, powered up and purged with nitrogen, until a launch could be rescheduled. This costly situation (about $6 million per month) pushed the overall costs of the project even higher. This delay did allow time for engineers to perform extensive tests, swap out a possibly failure-prone battery, and make other improvements.Furthermore, the ground software needed to control Hubble was not ready in 1986, and in fact was barely ready by the 1990 launch.
Eventually, following the resumption of shuttle flights in 1988, the launch of the telescope was scheduled for 1990. On April 24, 1990, shuttle missionSTS-31sawDiscoverylaunch the telescope successfully into its planned orbit.
From its original total cost estimate of about US$400 million, the telescope had by now cost over $2.5 billion to construct. Hubble's cumulative costs up to this day are estimated to be several times higher still, with US expenditure estimated at between $4.5 and $6 billion, and Europe's financial contribution at €593 million (1999 estimate).
Within weeks of the launch of the telescope, the returned images indicated a serious problem with the optical system. Although the first images appeared to be sharper than those of ground-based telescopes, Hubble failed to achieve a final sharp focus and the best image quality obtained was drastically lower than expected. Images ofpoint sourcesspread out over a radius of more than one arcsecond, instead of having apoint spread function(PSF) concentrated within a circle 0.1 arcsec in diameter as had been specified in the design criteria.
Analysis of the flawed images showed that the cause of the problem was that the primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape. Although it was probably the most precisely figured mirror ever made, with variations from the prescribed curve of only 10 nanometers,at the perimeter it was too flat by about 2,200 nanometers (2.2micrometres).This difference was catastrophic, introducing severespherical aberration, a flaw in which light reflecting off the edge of a mirrorfocuseson a different point from the light reflecting off its center.
The effect of the mirror flaw on scientific observations depended on the particular observation—the core of the aberrated PSF was sharp enough to permit high-resolution observations of bright objects, and spectroscopy was largely unaffected. However, the loss of light to the large, out of focus halo severely reduced the usefulness of the telescope for faint objects or high-contrast imaging. This meant that nearly all of the cosmological programs were essentially impossible, since they required observation of exceptionally faint objects.NASA and the telescope became the butt of many jokes, and the project was popularly regarded as awhite elephant. (For instance, in the 1991 comedyThe Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, the Hubble was pictured with theTitanic, theHindenburg, and theEdsel).Nonetheless, during the first three years of the Hubble mission, before the optical corrections, the telescope still carried out a large number of productive observations. The error was well characterized and stable, enabling astronomers to optimize the results obtained using sophisticatedimage processingtechniques such asdeconvolution.
A commission headed byLew Allen, director of theJet Propulsion Laboratory, was established to determine how the error could have arisen. The Allen Commission found that the mainnull corrector, a testing device used to achieve a properly shaped non-spherical mirror, had been incorrectly assembled—one lens was wrongly spaced by 1.3 mm.During the initial grinding and polishing of the mirror, Perkin-Elmer analyzed its surface with two conventional null correctors.  However, for the final manufacturing step (figuring), they switched to a custom-built null corrector, designed explicitly to meet very strict tolerances. Ironically, this device was mis-assembled, resulting in an extremely precise (but wrong) shape for the mirror.  There was one final opportunity to catch the error, since a few of the final tests needed to use conventional null correctors for various technical reasons.  These tests correctly indicatedspherical aberration.  However, the company ignored these results, as it believed they were less accurate than the primary device which reported that the mirror was perfectly figured.
The commission blamed the failings primarily on Perkin-Elmer. Relations between NASA and the optics company had been severely strained during the telescope construction, due to frequent schedule slippage and cost overruns. NASA found that Perkin-Elmer did not review or supervise the mirror construction adequately, did not assign its best optical scientists to the project (as it had for the prototype), and in particular did not involve the optical designers in the construction and verification of the mirror. While the commission heavily criticized Perkin-Elmer for these managerial failings, NASA was also criticized for not picking up on the quality control shortcomings, such as relying totally on test results from a single instrument.
The design of the telescope had always incorporated servicing missions, and astronomers immediately began to seek potential solutions to the problem that could be applied at the first servicing mission, scheduled for 1993. While Kodak and Itek had each ground back-up mirrors for Hubble, it would have been impossible to replace the mirror in orbit, and too expensive and time-consuming to bring the telescope back to Earth for a refit. Instead, the fact that the mirror had been ground so precisely to the wrong shape led to the design of new optical components with exactly the same error but in the opposite sense, to be added to the telescope at the servicing mission, effectively acting as "spectacles" to correct the spherical aberration.
The first step was a precise characterization of the error in the main mirror. Working backwards from images of point sources, astronomers determined that theconic constantof the mirror as built was −1.01390±0.0002, instead of the intended −1.00230.The same number was also derived by analyzing the null corrector used by Perkin-Elmer to figure the mirror, as well as by analyzinginterferogramsobtained during ground testing of the mirror.
Because of the way the HST's instruments were designed, two different sets of correctors were required. The design of theWide Field and Planetary Camera 2, already planned to replace the existing WF/PC, included relay mirrors to direct light onto the eight separateCCDchips making up its two cameras. An inverse error built into their surfaces could completely cancel the aberration of the primary. However, the other instruments lacked any intermediate surfaces that could be figured in this way, and so required an external correction device.
TheCorrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement(COSTAR) system was designed to correct the spherical aberration for light focused at the FOC, FOS, and GHRS. It consists of two mirrors in the light path with one ground to correct the aberration.To fit the COSTAR system onto the telescope, one of the other instruments had to be removed, and astronomers selected theHigh Speed Photometerto be sacrificed.By 2002, all of the original instruments requiring COSTAR had been replaced by instruments with their own corrective optics.COSTAR was removed and returned to Earth in 2009 where it is exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum. The area previously used by COSTAR is now occupied by theCosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Hubble was designed to accommodate regular servicing and equipment upgrades. Five servicing missions (SM 1, 2, 3A, 3B, and 4) were flown by NASAspace shuttles, the first in December 1993 and the last in May 2009. Servicing missions were delicate operations that began with maneuvering to intercept the telescope in orbit and carefully retrieving it with the shuttle'smechanical arm. The necessary work was then carried out in multiple tetheredspacewalksover a period of four to five days. After a visual inspection of the telescope, astronauts conducted repairs, replaced failed or degraded components, upgraded equipment, and installed new instruments. Once work was completed, the telescope was redeployed, typically after boosting to a higher orbit to address anyorbital decaycaused by atmosphericdrag.
After the problems with Hubble's mirror came to light, the first servicing mission assumed a much greater importance, as the astronauts would have to carry out extensive work on the telescope to install the corrective optics. The seven astronauts selected for the mission were trained intensively in the use of the hundred or more specialized tools that would be needed.SM1 flew aboardEndeavourin December 1993, and involved installation of several instruments and other equipment over 10 days.
Most importantly, theHigh Speed Photometerwas replaced with theCOSTARcorrective optics package, and WFPC was replaced with theWide Field and Planetary Camera 2(WFPC2) with its internal optical correction system. In addition, thesolar arraysand their drive electronics were replaced, as well as four of thegyroscopesused in the telescope pointing system, two electrical control units and other electrical components, and two magnetometers. The onboard computers were upgraded, and the telescope's orbit was boosted.
On January 13, 1994, NASA declared the mission a complete success and showed the first of many much sharper images.At the time, the mission was one of the most complex ever undertaken, involving five lengthy periods ofextra-vehicular activity, and its resounding success was an enormous boon for NASA, as well as for the astronomers who now had a fully capable space telescope.
Servicing Mission 2, flown byDiscoveryin February 1997, replaced the GHRS and the FOS with theSpace Telescope Imaging Spectrograph(STIS) and theNear Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer(NICMOS), replaced an Engineering and Science Tape Recorder with a new Solid State Recorder, and repaired thermal insulation.NICMOS contained aheat sinkof solidnitrogento reduce thethermal noisefrom the instrument, but shortly after it was installed, an unexpectedthermal expansionresulted in part of the heat sink coming into contact with an optical baffle. This led to an increased warming rate for the instrument and reduced its original expected lifetime of 4.5 years to about 2 years.
Servicing Mission 3A, flown byDiscovery, took place in December 1999, and was a split-off from Servicing Mission 3 after three of the six onboard gyroscopes had failed. A fourth failed a few weeks before the mission, rendering the telescope incapable of performing scientific observations. The mission replaced all six gyroscopes, replaced aFine Guidance Sensorand the computer, installed a Voltage/temperature Improvement Kit (VIK) to prevent battery overcharging, and replaced thermal insulation blankets.The new computer is 20 times faster, with six times more memory, than theDF-224it replaced. It increases throughput by moving some computing tasks from the ground to the spacecraft, and saves money by allowing the use of modern programming languages.
Servicing Mission 3B flown byColumbiain March 2002 saw the installation of a new instrument, with the FOC (the last original instrument) being replaced by theAdvanced Camera for Surveys(ACS). This meant that COSTAR was no longer required, since all new instruments had built-in correction for the main mirror aberration.The mission also revived NICMOSand replaced the solar arrays for the second time, providing 30 percent more power.
Plans called for Hubble to be serviced in February 2005, but theColumbiadisasterin 2003, in whichColumbiadisintegrated on re-entry into the atmosphere, had wide-ranging effects on the Hubble program. NASA AdministratorSean O'Keefedecided that all future shuttle missions had to be able to reach the safe haven of theInternational Space Stationshould in-flight problems develop. As no shuttles were capable of reaching both HST and the ISS during the same mission, future manned service missions were canceled.This decision was assailed by numerous astronomers, who felt that Hubble was valuable enough to merit the human risk. HST's planned successor, theJames Webb Telescope, is not expected to launch until at least 2018. A gap in space-observing capabilities between a decommissioning of Hubble and the commissioning of a successor is of major concern to many astronomers, given the significant scientific impact of HST.The consideration that JWST will not be located inlow Earth orbit, and therefore cannot be easily upgraded or repaired in the event of an early failure, only makes these concerns more acute. On the other hand, many astronomers felt strongly that the servicing of Hubble should not take place if the expense were to come from the JWST budget.
In January 2004, O'Keefe said he would review his decision to cancel the final servicing mission to HST due to public outcry and requests from Congress for NASA to look for a way to save it. The National Academy of Sciences convened an official panel, which recommended in July 2004 that the HST should be preserved despite the apparent risks. Their report urged "NASA should take no actions that would preclude a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope".In August 2004, O'Keefe asked Goddard Space Flight Center to prepare a detailed proposal for a robotic service mission. These plans were later canceled, the robotic mission being described as "not feasible".In late 2004, several Congressional members, led by SenatorBarbara Mikulski, held public hearings and carried on a fight with much public support (including thousands of letters from school children across the country) to get the Bush Administration and NASA to reconsider the decision to drop plans for a Hubble rescue mission.
The nomination in April 2005 of a new NASA Administrator,Michael D. Griffin, changed the situation, as Griffin stated he would consider a manned servicing mission.Soon after his appointment Griffin authorized Goddard to proceed with preparations for a manned Hubble maintenance flight, saying he would make the final decision after the next two shuttle missions. In October 2006 Griffin gave the final go-ahead, and the 11-day mission byAtlantiswas scheduled for October 2008. Hubble's main data-handling unit failed in September 2008,halting all reporting of scientific data until its back-up was brought online on October 25, 2008.Since a failure of the backup unit would leave the HST helpless, the service mission was postponed to incorporate a replacement for the primary unit.Servicing Mission 4, flown byAtlantisin May 2009, was the last scheduled shuttle mission for HST.SM4 installed the replacement data-handling unit, repaired the ACS and STIS systems, installed improvednickel hydrogen batteries, and replaced other components. SM4 also installed two new observation instruments—Wide Field Camera 3(WTF3) and theCosmic Origins Spectrograph(COS)—and the Soft Capture and Rendezvous System, which will enable the future rendezvous, capture, and safe disposal of Hubble by either a crewed or robotic mission.The work accomplished during SM4 is expected to render the telescope fully functioning at least into the year 2014, and perhaps longer.
In the early 1980s, NASA and STScI convened four panels to discuss Key Projects. These were projects that were both scientifically important and would require significant telescope time, which would be explicitly dedicated to each project. This guaranteed that these particular projects would be completed early, in case the telescope failed sooner than expected. The panels identified three such projects: (1) a study of the nearby intergalactic medium using quasar absorption lines to determine the properties of the intergalactic medium and the gaseous content of galaxies and groups of galaxies;(2) a medium deep survey using the Wide Field Camera to take data whenever one of the other instruments was being usedand (3) a project to determine theHubble Constantwithin ten percent by reducing the errors, both external and internal, in the calibration of the distance scale.
The Hubble has helped to resolve some long-standing problems in astronomy, as well as turning up results that have required newtheoriesto explain them. Among its primary mission targets was to measure distances toCepheid variablestars more accurately than ever before, and thusconstrain the valueof theHubble constant, the measure of the rate at which the universe is expanding, which is also related to its age. Before the launch of HST, estimates of the Hubble constant typically haderrorsof up to 50%, but Hubble measurements of Cepheid variables in theVirgo Clusterand other distant galaxy clusters provided a measured value with an accuracy of ±10%, which is consistent with other more accurate measurements made since Hubble's launch using other techniques.
While Hubble helped to refine estimates of the age of the universe, it also cast doubt on theories about its future. Astronomers from theHigh-z Supernova Search Teamand theSupernova Cosmology Projectused the telescope to observe distantsupernovaeand uncovered evidence that, far from decelerating under the influence ofgravity, the expansion of the universe may in fact beaccelerating. This acceleration was later measured more accurately by other ground-based and space-based telescopes, confirming Hubble's finding. The cause of this acceleration remains poorly understood;the most common cause attributed isdark energy.
The high-resolution spectra and images provided by the HST have been especially well-suited to establishing the prevalence ofblack holesin the nuclei of nearby galaxies. While it had been hypothesized in the early 1960s that black holes would be found at the centers of some galaxies, and work in the 1980s identified a number of good black hole candidates, it fell to work conducted with Hubble to show that black holes are probably common to the centers of all galaxies.The Hubble programs further established that the masses of the nuclear black holes and properties of the galaxies are closely related. The legacy of the Hubble programs on black holes in galaxies is thus to demonstrate a deep connection between galaxies and their central black holes.
The collision ofComet Shoemaker-Levy 9withJupiterin 1994 was fortuitously timed for astronomers, coming just a few months after Servicing Mission 1 had restored Hubble's optical performance. Hubble images of theplanetwere sharper than any taken since the passage ofVoyager 2in 1979, and were crucial in studying the dynamics of the collision of a comet with Jupiter, an event believed to occur once every few centuries.
Other major discoveries made using Hubble data include proto-planetary disks (proplyds) in theOrion Nebula;evidence for the presence ofextrasolar planetsaround sun-like stars;and the optical counterparts of the still-mysteriousgamma ray bursts.HST has also been used to study objects in the outer reaches of the Solar System, including the dwarf planetsPlutoandEris.
A unique legacy of Hubble are theHubble Deep Field,Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, andHubble Extreme Deep Fieldimages, which utilized Hubble's unmatched sensitivity at visible wavelengths to create images of small patches of sky that are the deepest ever obtained at optical wavelengths. The images reveal galaxies billions of light years away, and have generated a wealth of scientific papers, providing a new window on the early Universe.
The non-standard objectSCP 06F6was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in February 2006.During June and July 2012, US astronomers using Hubble discovered a tiny fifth moon moving around icy Pluto.
Many objective measures show the positive impact of Hubble data on astronomy. Over 9,000 papers based on Hubble data have been published in peer-reviewed journals,and countless more have appeared in conferenceproceedings. Looking at papers several years after their publication, about one-third of all astronomy papers have nocitations, while only 2% of papers based on Hubble data have no citations. On average, a paper based on Hubble data receives about twice as many citations as papers based on non-Hubble data. Of the 200 papers published each year that receive the most citations, about 10% are based on Hubble data.
Although the HST has clearly helped astronomical research, its financial cost has been large. A study on the relative astronomical benefits of different sizes of telescopes found that while papers based on HST data generate 15 times as many citations as a 4 m ground-based telescope such as theWilliam Herschel Telescope, the HST costs about 100 times as much to build and maintain.
Deciding between building ground- versus space-based telescopes is complex. Even before Hubble was launched, specialized ground-based techniques such asaperture masking interferometryhad obtained higher-resolution optical and infrared images than Hubble would achieve, though restricted to targets about 10times brighter than the faintest targets observed by Hubble.Since then, advances inadaptive opticshave extended the high-resolution imaging capabilities of ground-based telescopes to the infrared imaging of faint objects. The usefulness of adaptive optics versus HST observations depends strongly on the particular details of the research questions being asked. In the visible bands, adaptive optics can only correct a relatively small field of view, whereas HST can conduct high-resolution optical imaging over a wide field. Only a small fraction of astronomical objects are accessible to high-resolution ground-based imaging; in contrast Hubble can perform high-resolution observations of any part of the night sky, and on objects that are extremely faint.
Anyone can apply for time on the telescope; there are no restrictions on nationality or academic affiliation.Competition for time on the telescope is intense, and only about one-fifth of the proposals submitted in each cycle earn time on the schedule.
Calls for proposals are issued roughly annually, with time allocated for a cycle lasting about one year. Proposals are divided into several categories; 'general observer' proposals are the most common, covering routine observations. 'Snapshot observations' are those in which targets require only 45 minutes or less of telescope time, including overheads such as acquiring the target; snapshot observations are used to fill in gaps in the telescope schedule that cannot be filled by regular GO programs.
Astronomers may make 'Target of Opportunity' proposals, in which observations are scheduled if a transient event covered by the proposal occurs during the scheduling cycle. In addition, up to 10% of the telescope time is designated Director's Discretionary (DD) Time. Astronomers can apply to use DD time at any time of year, and it is typically awarded for study of unexpected transient phenomena such as supernovae.
Other uses of DD time have included the observations that led to the production of the Hubble Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field, and in the first four cycles of telescope time, observations carried out by amateur astronomers.
The first director of STScI,Riccardo Giacconi, announced in 1986 that he intended to devote some of his Director Discretionary time to allowingamateur astronomersto use the telescope. The total time to be allocated was only a few hours per cycle, but excited great interest among amateur astronomers.
Proposals for amateur time were stringentlypeer reviewedby a committee of leading amateur astronomers, and time was awarded only to proposals that were deemed to have genuine scientific merit, did not duplicate proposals made by professionals, and required the unique capabilities of the space telescope. In total, 13 amateur astronomers were awarded time on the telescope, with observations being carried out between 1990 and 1997. One such study wasTransition Comets — UV Search for OH Emissions in Asteroids. The very first proposal, "A Hubble Space Telescope Study of Post Eclipse Brightening and Albedo Changes on Io", was published in Icarus,a journal devoted to solar system studies. After that time, however, budget reductions at STScI made the support of work by amateur astronomers untenable, and no further amateur programs have been carried out.
The Hubble Telescope celebrated its 20th anniversary in space on April 22, 2010. To commemorate the occasion, NASA, ESA, and Space Telescope Institute (STScI) released an image from theCarina Nebula.
Hubble data was initially stored on the spacecraft. When launched, the storage facilities were old-fashioned reel-to-reeltape recorders, but these were replaced bysolid statedata storage facilities during servicing missions 2 and 3A. About twice daily, the Hubble Space Telescope radios data to a satellite in thegeosynchronousTracking and Data Relay Satellite System, which then downlinks the science data to one of two 60-foot (18-meter) diameter high-gain microwave antennas located at theWhite Sands Test FacilityinWhite Sands,New Mexico.From there they are sent to the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at Goddard Space Flight Center, and finally to the Space Telescope Science Institute for archiving.Each week, HST downlinks approximately 120 gigabytes of data.
All Hubble data is eventually made available via thearchivesat STScI,CADCandESO.Data is usually proprietary—available only to theprincipal investigator(PI) and astronomers designated by the PI—for one year after being taken. The PI can apply to the director of the STScI to extend or reduce the proprietary period in some circumstances.
Observations made on Director's Discretionary Time are exempt from the proprietary period, and are released to the public immediately. Calibration data such as flat fields anddark framesare also publicly available straight away. All data in the archive is in theFITSformat, which is suitable for astronomical analysis but not for public use.TheHubble Heritage Projectprocesses and releases to the public a small selection of the most striking images inJPEGandTIFFformats.
Astronomical data taken withCCDsmust undergo several calibration steps before they are suitable for astronomical analysis. STScI has developed sophisticated software that automatically calibrates data when they are requested from the archive using the best calibration files available. This 'on-the-fly' processing means that large data requests can take a day or more to be processed and returned. The process by which data are calibrated automatically is known as 'pipeline reduction', and is increasingly common at major observatories. Astronomers may if they wish retrieve the calibration files themselves and run the pipeline reduction software locally. This may be desirable when calibration files other than those selected automatically need to be used.
Hubble data can be analysed using many different packages. STScI maintains the custom-made STSDAS (Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System) software, which contains all the programs needed to run pipeline reduction on raw data files, as well as many other astronomical image processing tools, tailored to the requirements of Hubble data. The software runs as a module ofIRAF, a popular astronomical data reduction program.
It has always been important for the Space Telescope to capture the public's imagination, given the considerable contribution oftaxpayersto its construction and operational costs.After the difficult early years when the faulty mirror severely dented Hubble's reputation with the public, the first servicing mission allowed its rehabilitation as the corrected optics produced numerous remarkable images.
Several initiatives have helped to keep the public informed about Hubble activities. TheHubble Heritage Projectwas established to provide the public with high-quality images of the most interesting and striking objects observed. The Heritage team is composed of amateur and professional astronomers, as well as people with backgrounds outside astronomy, and emphasizes theaestheticnature of Hubble images. The Heritage Project is granted a small amount of time to observe objects which, for scientific reasons, may not have images taken at enough wavelengths to construct a full-color image.
STScI maintains several comprehensive websites for the general public containing Hubble images and information about the observatory.The outreach efforts are coordinated by the Office for Public Outreach, which was established in 2000 to ensure that US taxpayers saw the benefits of their investment in the space telescope program.
Since 1999, the leading Hubble outreach group in Europe has been theHubble European Space Agency Information Centre(HEIC).This office was established at theSpace Telescope - European Coordinating Facilityin Munich, Germany. HEIC's mission is to fulfill HST outreach and education tasks for the European Space Agency. The work is centered on the production of news and photo releases that highlight interesting Hubble results and images. These are often European in origin, and so increase awareness of both ESA’s Hubble share (15%) and the contribution of European scientists to the observatory. ESA produces innovative educational material, including avideocastseries called Hubblecast designed to share world-class scientific news with the public.
The Hubble Space Telescope has won two Space Achievement Awards from theSpace Foundationfor its outreach activities, in 2001 and 2010.
There is a replica of the Hubble Telescope on the courthouse lawn inMarshfield, Missouri, the hometown of namesake Edwin P. Hubble.
Past servicing missions have exchanged old instruments for new ones, both avoiding failure and making possible new types of science. Without servicing missions, all of the instruments will eventually fail. In August 2004, the power system of theSpace Telescope Imaging Spectrograph(STIS) failed, rendering the instrument inoperable. The electronics had originally been fully redundant, but the first set of electronics failed in May 2001.This power supply was fixed during servicing mission 4 in May 2009. Similarly, the main camera (theACS) primary electronics failed in June 2006, and the power supply for the backup electronics failed on January 27, 2007.Only the instrument's Solar Blind Channel (SBC) was operable using the side-1 electronics. A new power supply for the wide angle channel was added during SM 4, but quick tests revealed this did not help the high resolution channel.
HST usesgyroscopesto stabilize itself in orbit and point accurately and steadily at astronomical targets. Normally, three gyroscopes are required for operation; observations are still possible with two, but the area of sky that can be viewed would be somewhat restricted, and observations requiring very accurate pointing are more difficult.There are further contingency plans for observations with just one gyro,but if all gyros fail, continued scientific observations will not be possible. In 2005, it was decided to switch to two-gyroscope mode for regular telescope operations as a means of extending the lifetime of the mission. The switch to this mode was made in August 2005, leaving Hubble with two gyroscopes in use, two on backup, and two inoperable.One more gyro failed in 2007.By the time of the final repair mission, during which all six gyros were replaced (with two new pairs and one refurbished pair), only three gyros were still working. Engineers are confident that they have identified the root causes of the gyro failures,and the new models should be much more reliable.
Hubble orbits the Earth in the extremely tenuous upperatmosphere, and over time its orbitdecaysdue todrag. If it is not re-boosted by a shuttle or other means, it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime between 2019 and 2032, with the exact date depending on how active the Sun is and its impact on the upper atmosphere.  If Hubble were to descend in a completely uncontrolled re-entry, parts of the main mirror and its support structure would probably survive, leaving the potential for damage or even human fatalities.
NASA's original plan for safely de-orbiting Hubble was toretrieve it using a space shuttle. The Hubble telescope would then have most likely been displayed in theSmithsonian Institution. This is no longer possible since thespace shuttle fleet has been retired, and would have been unlikely in any case due to the cost of the mission and risk to the crew. Instead NASA considered adding an external propulsion module to allow controlled re-entry.Ultimately NASA installed the Soft Capture and Rendezvous System, to enable retrieval by either a crewed or robotic mission.
Àdàkọ:Further2
There is no direct successor to the Hubble as an ultraviolet and visible-light space telescope, as near-term space telescopes do not duplicate Hubble's wavelength coverage (near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths), instead concentrating on the farther infrared bands. These bands are preferred for studying high redshift and low-temperature objects, objects generally older and farther away in the universe. These wavelengths are also difficult or impossible to study from the ground, justifying the expense of a space-based telescope. Large ground-based telescopes can image some of the same wavelengths as Hubble, sometimes challenge HST in terms of resolution (via adaptive optics), have much larger light-gathering power, and can be upgraded more easily, but cannot yet match the Hubble's excellent resolution over a wide field of view with the very dark background of space.
Plans for a Hubble successor materialized as the Next Generation Space Telescope project, which culminated in plans for theJames Webb Space Telescope(JWST), the formal successor of Hubble.Very different from a scaled-up Hubble, it is designed to operate colder and farther away from the Earth at the L2Lagrangian point, where thermal and optical interference from the Earth and Moon are lessened. It is not engineered to be fully serviceable (such as replaceable instruments), but the design includes a docking ring to enable visits from other spacecraft.A main scientific goal of JWST is to observe the most distant objects in the universe, beyond the reach of existing instruments. It is expected to detect stars in theearly Universeapproximately 280 million years older than stars HST now detects.The telescope is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and theCanadian Space Agencysince 1996,and is planned for launch on anAriane 5rocket.Although JWST is primarily an infrared instrument, its coverage extends down to 600 nm wavelength light, or roughly orange in thevisible spectrum. A typical human eye can see to about 750 nm wavelength light, so there is some overlap with the longest visible wavelength bands, including orange and red light.
A complementary telescope, looking at even longer wavelengths than Hubble or JWST, is the European Space Agency'sHerschel Space Observatory, launched on May 14, 2009. Like JWST, Herschel is not designed to be serviced after launch, and has a mirror substantially larger than Hubble's, but observes only in thefar infrared.
Further concepts for advanced 21st-century space telescopes include theAdvanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope., a conceptualized 8- to 16-meter (320- to 640-inch) optical space telescope that if realized could be a more direct successor to HST, with the ability to observe and photograph astronomical objects in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with substantially better resolution than Hubble or theSpitzer Space telescope. This effort is being planned for the 2025–2035 time frame.
Existing ground-based telescopes, and various proposedExtremely Large Telescopes, can exceed the HST in terms of sheer light-gathering power and diffraction limit due to larger mirrors, but other factors affect telescopes. In some cases, they may be able to match or beat Hubble in resolution by usingadaptive optics(AO). However, AO on large ground-based reflectors will not make Hubble and other space telescopes obsolete. Most AO systems sharpen the view over a very narrow field—Lucky Cam, for example, produces crisp images just 10" to 20" wide, whereas Hubble's cameras are super sharp across a 2½' (150") field. Furthermore, space telescopes can study the heavens across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, most of which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere. Finally, the background sky is darker in space than on the ground, because air absorbs solar energy during the day and then releases it at night, producing a faint—but nevertheless discernible—airglowthat washes out low-contrast astronomical objects.
Àdàkọ:GSFCÀdàkọ:European Space Agency