Title(of programme, movie etc.):
The Hubble Space Telescope

Source(radio; tv etc.): TV

Category (documentary; movie; lyrics etc.): Documentary

Subject-matter: Hubble

Date: 25-12-2002

Time spent on listening: 120 minuten

Your opinion about what you listened to:
It was a documentary about the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s an informative documentary, it’s not to difficult to understand.

Summary:

As light travels trough the turbulent atmosphere of the Earth, the fine cosmic details become blurred. It is this same atmospheric turbulence that makes the stars appear to twinkle on a dark night.

Putting a telescope in space is one way of evading this problem. As well as collecting visible light from its orbit high above the atmosphere, the Hubble Space Telescope also carries the biggest ultraviolet instrument ever launched into space, so it can also register wavelengths that are completely filtered out by the atmosphere.

The Hubble Space Telescope, named after the American scientist Edwin Hubble, a joint ESA and NASA project, has already made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy. From its orbiting point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble can detect light before it is distorted by the atmosphere with eyes 10 times sharper than the largest telescopes on the Earth.

At the heart of Hubble are a primary mirror and five science instruments that work. There are two cameras, including ESA's Faint Object Camera (FOC), two spectrographs and a set of fine guidance sensors. Hubble was designed to be serviced in space. The telescope was placed into a low-Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle. To assist astronauts on the Servicing Missions its outer shell has special 76 handholds so that the astronauts easily can grab on.

Power for the computers and other instruments onboard is provided by two solar panels. The power generated is also used to charge six nickel-hydrogen batteries which provide power for about 25 while Hubble flies through the Earth's shadow.

The telescope uses a progressive system of attitude control to improve its stability when making pictures. A system of reaction wheels manoeuvre the telescope into the position to observe a specific part of space.