Who is hubble space telescope named after

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. More about Astronomer Astronomy Baltimore Space. Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password? At the observatory, they were just finishing up the final touches on the Hooker telescope, which was the most powerful telescope in the world at the time.

While there, Hubble used the inch telescope to prove that there were galaxies other than our own—a solution to what was known as the "spiral nebulae problem. Others had suggested and found some evidence, that these "nebulae" were actually galaxies, but the evidence wasn't yet strong enough to be widely accepted.

With the help of the Hooker telescope, Hubble was able to provide the needed evidence. To do this, he took pictures using the Hooker telescope and noted that some of these "spiral nebulae" contained Cepheid variable stars within them.

Cepheid variable stars can be used to determine distance to the stars based on the luminosity and pulsation period. Thanks to this, he was able to determine that the Andromeda "Nebula"—to be renamed the Andromeda Galaxy—was approximately , light years away from Earth, which given its apparent size and distance away, meant that it had to be its own galaxy.

It was later discovered that his calculations were off and the galaxy was actually 2. Before this, there was only the Milky Way in our collective knowledge of space. Thanks to Hubble, for the first time, it was conclusively proven that space was far more vast than we'd ever imagined. Fitting, considering the Deep Field images the telescope named in his honor would return similarly made us all feel that much smaller in our place in the universe with around 3, galaxies showing up in a tiny portion of space- one 24 millionth of the sky- that otherwise looked black and devoid of anything.

In addition, Hubble created what is known as the Hubble sequence, a way of classifying different galaxies, which is still commonly used today. In , with the help of his colleague Milton Humason, Hubble published a theory that the universe was expanding. It would later be known as Hubble's Law. The pair had found redshifts in galaxies' light emissions, which demonstrates galaxies are moving away from each other.

Ultimately, the universe was getting bigger. Of course, this is one area where Hubble, perhaps, gets too much credit. Dimensions: Length: In addition two solar panels each 2. Hubble was deployed by the Space Shuttle Discovery STS into a circular orbit approximately km above the ground, inclined at The telescope whirls around Earth at 28, kilometres an hour and takes 96 minutes to complete one orbit.

As of spring , the telescope had made more than trips around our planet. Those trips correspond to about 6. As of spring , the Hubble Space Telescope has made over 1. Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 15 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.

Open Menu.