Edwin Hubble (d 1953), for whom the Hubble
Telescope is named, used the largest telescope of his day in the
1920s at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California, to discover
galaxies beyond our own.
Hubble, the observatory, is the first major optical telescope to
be placed in space. Hubble has an unobstructed view of the
universe. Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most
distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar
system.
Hubble's launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most
significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope.
Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 25 years of
operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has
never been the same.
Incidentally, The
telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating more
than 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human
hair seen at a distance of 1 mile, and also like being able to
shine a laser beam on President Roosevelt’s head on a dime
from 200 miles away.
It has made more
than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990.
Hubble has circled
Earth and gone more than 4 billion miles along a circular low
earth orbit. Its primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5
inches) across. It was so finely polished that if you scaled
it to be the diameter of the Earth, you would not find a bump
more than 6 inches tall.