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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 Hubble Discovers the birth of starshundreds 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.
Our beautiful Milky Way!

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

  
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
  

Online July 29, 2000   -   by Cliff Walker

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