hubbell our beloved telescope is one of the greatest technological achievements
in human history it has opened our eyes to the heavens expanded our
understanding about the fate of galaxies and introduced us to new wonders of the
universe but Hubble was in danger of being lost the aging telescope was in
need of repairs and upgrading of instruments and equipment but with the
ending of the space shuttle program the future looked bleak you see Hubble is
dependent upon humans from the earth to service her and to periodically and
gently nudge her back up into her orbit in the extremely tenuous upper
atmosphere in orbit because of the forces of nature naturally deteriorates
the Hubble telescope orbits nearly 400 miles above the earth circling the globe
every 97 minutes the 12 ton telescope as big as a school
bus was falling back to earth the shuttle astronauts though went to
Hubble's rescue in 2009 fixed Hubble and made her more powerful than ever it was
however the last service call but for the time being she is back with even
more new discoveries her powerful instruments see it all soaring star
nurseries where new worlds are made the violence of exploding stars and has shed
a new light on black holes this is Hubble's fantastic universe she is the
most celebrated telescope on earth yet has never touched the earth Hubble has
been our key to understanding the greatest mysteries of the universe after
her repairs were complete she turned her instruments toward a giant gas planet
called wasp 12 be discovering protoplanetary disks evidence of the
first extrasolar carbon-rich planet orbiting around a Sun like ours
some 600 light-years from Earth and who was orbiting too close to its star she
presented to us the optical counterparts of the still mysterious gamma-ray bursts
this is Hubble's first picture of the eco nebula some 6,500 light-years away
where stars are born while Hubble helped to define the age of the universe
she also cast doubt on theories about its future and our own eventual demise
the helix nebula lies 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius the
Crab Nebula the leftovers of an exploding great star in our own galaxy
Hubble is giving scientists an exceptional learning experience Hubble
is monitoring one star in particular a de Carina in the Carina Nebula a star
with superheated gas erupting from the surface before Hubble there was no
conclusive proof that black holes existed at all to prove this Hubble was
focused on the Centers of galaxies Hubble saw stars circling around at high
speeds a sure sign of a black hole
further evidence of black holes comes from Hubble's incredible images of a
mysterious jet some five thousand light-years long and is piercing the
heart of an elliptical galaxy called m87
before Hubble black holes were merely an unproven astronomical theory the Hubble
Space Telescope has changed that forever
in the summer of 1992 Comet shoemaker-levy 9 or SL 9 passed too
close to Jupiter and was trapped by the planets gravity and broke apart into a
long single line called this string of pearls which eventually collided with
Jupiter and Hubble captured it all a unique legacy of Hubble is the Hubble
Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field images Hubble's powerful instruments locked on
to a single region of what appeared to be empty space for 10 consecutive days
creating a series of exposures that would shaped the scientific community
what Hubble saw in this seemingly empty region of space was thousands and
thousands of galaxies in a new window on the early universe the entire history of
growth and change in galaxies in the universe is written in this single image
of the Hubble Deep Field but what may be Hubble's most astonishing discovery
isn't even seeing something with so much power
it holds the entire universe together it is called dark matter thanks to Hubble
astronomers have found a way to locate and measure dark matter but even when
scientists added all the dark matter and all the physical matter together we were
still missing two-thirds of the universe again we turn to Hubble for answers the
only answer was that far from decelerating under the influence of
gravity something was causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate
an unseen force known as dark energy but how long will Hubble continue to fly
after 25 years of operation Hubble has received its last service call and
although data from a refurbished Hubble continues to bring us new insights like
planets being eaten by their star and discoveries about dark energy and dark
manner her days are numbered Hubble's celebrated her 25th birthday in
April of 2015 and during that time we have learned
more about our universe than in the nearly 400 years since Galileo first
looked into his simple telescope not since Galileo turned his telescope
toward the heavens in 1610 has any event so changed our understanding of the
universe as the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope NASA eventually the
mission will end on the day that happens the Hubble telescope will receive one
last command to shut down and return to Earth the orbiting telescope will burn
up as she comes home re-enters Earth's atmosphere and crashes into the Pacific
Ocean sometime in 2024 she will not survive to be displayed in the
Smithsonian but she will remain in our hearts forever the grand-am will die and
pass into history but not before leaving us an incredible legacy and not without
the eternal gratitude of the people of Earth for giving us our first glimpse of
our truly amazing universe