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Cliff's Cosmos -
Move on to
Cliff's Cosmos 2
What is a Light Year? -
For a perspective of distances,
click here |
It was once thought that the
Milky Way Galaxy
was our entire universe.
In 1924,
Edwin Hubble changed all that when he discovered that there
are many galaxies
beyond the Milky Way. We now know that there are
 hundreds
of billions of galaxies stretching as far as our telescopes can see. In
honor of this discovery, the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was named
after Edwin Hubble.
Since its launch in 1990, HST has taken 600,000+ images of
30,000+ celestial
objects in the universe (astoundingly, this is
less than 1% of the observable sky).
Even
HST's team of
astronomers couldn't imagine the spectacular discoveries
that HST would give us, including the birth of stars billions of years ago.
Most of
the images on the
following pages were taken by HST. A few were taken by other land and
orbit based telescopes.
Even if not
interested in astronomy, you are sure to appreciate the stunning
photos of our universe on the pages to follow.
Light Years & Our Milky Way -
Throughout Cliff's Cosmos you
will see many references to The Milky Way and to
distances measured in light
years.
For more information about
these,
click here.
Hubble's Successor -
In 2014, HST will be replaced by the
James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST), with a
mirror size of 21
feet compared to HST's 2.5 feet. While HST orbits 366
miles above the earth, JWST will be placed at the
Lagrange L2 elliptical orbit around the Sun,
roughly 1.5
million miles from the Earth. JWST promises to
deliver photos as spectacular as HST, yet peer deeper into space than ever
before.
Explore Space From Your PC -
You don't need a backyard telescope to view our universe. Just download
Microsoft's impressive
Worldwide Telescope
and stargaze from your own computer. At the bottom of
the home page, read about WWT and take a tour.
Important: Before downloading
the Windows Client version,
click on the system requirements link to
verify that your PC can run the software adequately.
If not, install the Web Client version to run WWT within your browser. I
would suggest the Web Client version if you don't have Windows 7 or Vista
with 2GB+ ram.
Links of Interest:
Hubble Top 100 Images
Hubble Europe
Hubble Gallery
Hubble
News
Hubble Deep Field
NASA
NASA Images
NASA JPL
NASA Space Shuttle
Eagle Nebula
Mars
Rover |
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In 1990, the
Hubble Space Telescope was launched from
the
Space Shuttle into orbit 366
miles above the Earth. HST is 44 feet long, the size of a school bus, and
weighs 12 tons.
The photo on the right of the Hubble Space Telescope was taken from a
Shuttle in orbit.
Left:
In May 2009, a photographer using a special solar filter, captured the tiny
silhouette of the
space shuttle Atlantis crossing in front of the sun a day before it
latched on to repair the HST.
Right: This shot captured
the shuttle and the International Space Station
in orbit over Earth. |
Move on to
Cliff's Cosmos 2
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