The Hubble Space Telescope
Space Telescopes
What do you already know about Space Telescopes?
A space telescope is a high tech telescope that are in outer space. These telescopes can take incredibly clear, detailed pictures of distant galaxies, stars and planets. They can create such clear images because the telescopes are up in space and above the Earth’s atmosphere. The photos taken are then sent back to Earth. Often images from different space telescopes are combined together to put details together. Photos Scientists have learned a lot about space from pictures taken be space telescopes.
The first ever space telescope successfully launched into space was the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 or Stargazer for short. It launched on the 7th December 1968. It took the first ultraviolet images of stars, galaxies and comets.
There are currently over 30 space telescopes in orbit right now! Most space telescopes orbit Earth but some are much further out. Here you can learn about three major space telescopes up in space now, plus one that has just been completed and will hopefully be up in space by the end of 2026.
Hubble being lifted out of Discovery's cargo bay up in space the day after launch.
An illustration of what the James Webb Space Telescope looks like. There are no clear images of it up in space.
Chandra X-ray Observatory just after being deployed by the Space Shuttle Columbia.
An illustration of what the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look like once in space.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope was taken up into orbit on the 24th April 1990 by the space shuttle Discovery. It was named after an American astronomer called Edwin Hubble.
The Hubble Space Telescope is in orbit around the Earth like many other satellites, located about 350 miles above the Earth. It orbits the Earth very fast, travelling at extraordinary speeds of 5 miles a second. It takes only 95 minutes for it to orbit the Earth once!
The Hubble Space Telescope has been up in space for many years now. It was last visited by astronauts in 2009 and they made sure it was still working properly and fixed anything that was broken. That was the last time it will be visited and eventually the Hubble Space Telescope will stop working and won’t be fixed again. But right now it is still working and expected to carry on for years yet.
We have seen some amazing images of space because of the Hubble Space Telescope. It has shown us details of stars and galaxies that we would have never been able to see without it as they are so far away. Scientists think the universe is almost 14 billion years old based on the images Hubble has given us. It has even spotted black holes and recorded the explosions caused by stars burning out. It has also taken incredibly detailed pictures of things a bit closer to home, giving us more information about our Solar System.
An a amazing photo of a barred spiral galaxy. The arms of the galaxy are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its centre.
This image is multiple photos put together showing some of the farthest galaxies ever seen, showing how absolutely massive space really is!
This is a photo of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, about 26,000 light years away from us! You can see red, blue, yellow and white stars...amazing!
A beautiful image of gases created by a red giant star collapsing!
Chandra X-ray Observatory
On the 23rd July 1999 the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched on board of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was named after an astrophysicist called Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Like Hubble the Chandra X-ray Observatory orbits Earth, but is much further out. It takes 64 hours for it to orbit Earth once. It is designed to take x-ray images of extremely hot things such as the areas around black holes, exploding stars, and galaxy clusters. The Earth’s atmosphere blocks most x-rays, so Chandra can see things we absolutely cannot see from Earth.Â
This image shows different elements in the Cassiopeia A supernova explosion with the blast wave seen as the blue outer ring.
Chandra has provided lots of information on Sagittarius A at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy.
James Webb Space Telescope
On the 25th December 2021 another space telescope was launched called the James Webb Space Telescope. It was abord an unmanned rocket and had to be folded up to fit as it is so huge. Once up in position in space it then unfolded over two weeks, becoming as big as a 3 story building.
The telescope was named after James Webb, who was the head of NASA during the Apollo program. It was created jointly between NASA, the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and the ESA (European Space Agency).
This new telescope cost over 7 billion pounds to create. It is a newer, even more powerful telescope can can see 100 times more clearly than the Hubble Space Telescope. It uses infrared cameras and 18 gold coated mirrors to see even deeper into space and to study how the first galaxies were made. It can explore parts of space even the Hubble Space Telescope couldn’t.
It is much further out in space and is just under one million miles away from Earth! It doesn’t orbit Earth but orbits the Sun instead. It has a huge sun shield the size of a tennis court to protect the telescope from the sun as it needs to be kept extremely cold in order to work correctly.
The James Webb Space Telescope first sent images back to Earth in July 2022 and has been sending back amazingly clear images ever since.
The 'Cosmic Cliffs' of NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula.
An image taken of the same area as Hubble's Extreme Deep Field.
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA have just announced their new space telescope is completed. It is named after former NASA Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman. It has cost over 4 billion dollars to create! It hopefully will launch in September this year, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket. It will be located near the Webb Telescope, almost 1 million miles from Earth and will orbit the Sun, not the Earth.
Its main mirror is a similar size to Hubble’s but while Hubble zooms in on one part of space at a time the Roman Telescope will be able to see 100 times more of it at once using a wide angled lens.
The Roman Telescope will take images in visible and near-infrared light. The Webb Telescope takes infrared images, and Hubble takes mainly visible and ultraviolet light images. The different types of images hopefully mean scientists aren’t missing anything and allow for as much detail about what’s out there as possible.
What we've learnt...
Space Telescopes can take amazing images of outer space.
Most space telescopes orbit Earth but some are much further out orbiting the Sun.
Space Telescopes can see things we can’t see on Earth through the amosphere.
Often images are made up of lots of photos, and images from different space telescopes put together.
We have learnt a lot about outer space by the images from space telescopes.
Test your knowledge...
Space Telescopes Quiz
If you click the correct answer the box will turn green. If it’s the wrong answer it will turn red and then show you what the correct answer was. Remember to read or listen to the questions carefully! If you are listening to the questions using Text To Speech make sure you pause it after it has read the questions and answers so you have a chance to think!
#1. Which two space telescopes learnt about here orbit Earth?
Select all that apply:
#2. Can space telescopes see things we can’t see on Earth?
#3. What is the space telescope going up to space next called?
#4. What do Space Telescopes orbit?
#5. Which space telescope you’ve learnt about here takes x-ray images?
Results
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