This Galaxy Pic from the Hubble Telescope Shows How Astronauts Fixed Its Vision 25 Years Ago

[Judi Lynn]

By Samantha Mathewson, Space.com Contributor | December 7, 2018 02:35 pm ET

NASA released a stunning new comparison photo to celebrate the anniversary of the first astronaut mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope's blurry vision, 25 years ago.

Shortly after the space telescope launched, in 1990, NASA discovered a manufacturing flaw in the observatory's primary mirror, and this affected the clarity of the telescope's early images. During a shuttle mission in 1993, astronauts completed a spacewalk to install a replacement instrument to bring Hubble's view back into focus.

In honor of the mission's 25th anniversary, this newly released comparison photo captures three views of the central region of the spiral galaxy M100, which is located about 55 million light-years from Earth. [The Hubble Space Telescope: A 25th Anniversary Photo Celebration]

The image on the left was taken using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1, before astronauts swapped out the camera with the vision-corrected Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, according to a statement from NASA.

More:
https://www.space.com/42668-nasa-celebrates-25-anniversary-hubble-repair.html?utm_source=notification

[GemDigger]

1. The gift that keeps on giving. nt

[still_one]

2. details, details

[Victor_c3]

3. That is one incredible piece of equipment

I just read the entire Wikipedia entry about the Hubble telescope. The amount of work and thought that went into the program is incredible.

Much of the Hubble was initially put together with technology from the late 70s and early 80s. Computers were upgraded during varioys service missions. I’m chomping at the bit to see what the James Webb Telescope will do for research. A couple of decades worth of technology innovation will undoubtedly create a revolutionary instrument.

[Bearware]

4. I am wondering when they will start building telescopes in space (particularly the mirrors)

I bugs me that we still spend billions to build telescopes on the ground that have to have adaptive optics to deal with air currents, let alone with clouds or the sun coming up. We also spend billions on telescopes we launch where a great deal of the cost involves finding a way to fit the mirror inside a rocket , making the assembled telescope able to stand the launch stresses and designing the telescope last a long time because repair and refueling may not be available.

If we can get our act together to use the micro-gravity and near vacuum, we could be building optical mirrors more on the scale of radio telescopes with far less mass.

Maybe someone can convince Elon to launch on a future Starship test flight, a canister of liquid mercury, some small robots, associated electronics/mechanical components so they can start building a space telescope maybe with a starting mirror size of perhaps 25-50 meters. If the first mirror has some problems, melt it down and change the design etc. The mirror can be very thin and low mass because it doesn't have survive launch and unfolding. If the first attempt doesn't work very well, all the raw materials are right there so modify it or start over. Future Starship test flights could drop off additional raw materials, better robots etc. on the way to other missions.