Friday, April 20, 2012

Happy Birthday, Hubble!


An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows young stars in the heart of the Tarantula nebula, named so by early astronomers because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs
NASA gone into space with its light-gathering mirror polished to perfection, which was very good, but the mirror was also the wrong shape — which was very bad. It wasn't until 1993 that the shuttle Endeavour went aloft with a set of corrective optics — essentially space telescope glasses — that sharpened Hubble's blurry vision and allowed it to begin conducting the stargazing work it was built to do. Since that exercise in orbital optometry, Hubble has been sending home one astonishing photo after another — and one scientific breakthrough after another too.

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