How does Hubble work?

We write it down: have you ever wanted to look closer at the stars and see some of the coolest parts of our universe? Then you’ll need a telescope — a big one the Hubble space telescope has a mirror that’s eight feet across so this is much bigger than any telescope that you’ve ever used from your backyard Hubble is about 44 feet long and weighs more than 25 000 pounds but what’s most impressive about it is that we put it in space so in order to do that, it’s got to use very small amounts of power NASA fuels Hubble with the largest power source we know, the sun Two large solar panels capture sunlight to use as solar energy the Hubble space telescope is not only big in size and low on energy; it’s also fast It travels around the earth in its orbit at something like 20 000 kilometers per hour; it’s about 10 000 miles per hour, and it orbits the earth every hour and a half.

At this rate, the Hubble space telescope can travel from Los Angeles to Boston in about 10 minutes One of the reasons that the Hubble space telescope is so powerful today is that we’ve enabled new ways to use the telescope that didn’t exist before.

Hubble is the first telescope that has been designed to be visited in space by astronauts who perform repairs replace parts and update its technology with new instruments. We installed a brand new set of cameras, spectrographs and instruments in Hubble during its last servicing mission and they’re all performing remarkably well. Although the Hubble space telescope launched over 25 years ago, it continues to be one of the most important tools we have to learn about the universe [Music] Hubble has made countless discoveries through its observations and answering new puzzles that have emerged requires more powerful telescopes [Music] so one of Hubble’s greatest legacy is not just to answer questions about the universe but also to open up new mysteries that we can solve with future telescopes