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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 |
The Hubble Space Telescope -
Our sun resides in the
Milky Way Galaxy,
which was once thought to be the entire universe (with the naked eye, we can
only see stars in the Milky Way). However, in 1924,
Edwin Hubble discovered that
 there
are galaxies
beyond the Milky Way (we now know that there are billions of galaxies stretching as far as telescopes can see).
The
Hubble Space Telescope, launched in
1990, was named
in honor of Edwin Hubble.
Since its launch, HST has taken
over 600,000 images of
over 30,000 celestial
objects in the universe (yet this is
less than 1% of the observable sky).
If Edwin Hubble were alive today, he would be truly
astonished at the
spectacular discoveries
that HST has given us, including the birth of stars billions of years ago.
Even if not
interested in astronomy, you are sure to appreciate the stunning
photos on the pages to follow.
Light Years & Our Milky Way -
Throughout these pages 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 -
With launch scheduled for 2015, 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 Earth. JWST promises to
deliver photos as spectacular as HST, yet peer deeper into space than ever
before. See this photo
to get an idea of how JWST's infrared camera will allow us to see images in
a different light.
Explore Space From Your PC -
You don't need a telescope to view our universe.
With Microsoft's dazzling Worldwide Telescope (WWT), you can explore our universe from your PC.
Before using WWT, watch this interesting
Youtube Video. Then visit
Worldwide Telescope
(give it time to load), click on the second
blue button to run the Web Client online version (not the Windows
Client version) and get ready for an eye opening experience.
Click here for the
user guide and be sure to check out the
guided tours. |
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On April 24,1990 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,
weighs 12 tons, and orbits the earth at
16,900 mph. Left photo:
Space Shuttle launch. Right photo: HST, taken from
orbiting Space Shuttle. |
Move on to
Cliff's Cosmos 2
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