Science and Society
The Latest Developments in Science and Technology
Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
RECENT POSTS
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
100,000, or, Around the World in 6,684 Days
August 10, 2008 9:56 PM
Monday morning at 7:42 a.m. EDT marked the turning of the odometer for the Hubble telescope. It's now orbited the earth 100,000 times.
That would be 2.72 billion miles traveled (at about 17,500 miles an hour, at an altitude of 380 miles) since it was launched by the shuttle Discovery in 1990. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs it, likes to point out that that's the equivalent of 5,700 round trips to the moon -- or, if you'd like to look at it another way, it's the distance driven by all the vehicles in the U.S every three hours.
According to the institute, "The telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating more than 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 1 mile. Pointing the Hubble Space Telescope and locking onto distant celestial targets is like holding a laser light steady on a dime that is 200 miles away."
Hubblesite's gallery has a slide show with no fewer than 1,165 images in it; find it HERE if you have the time. Enjoy the view.
August 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/433071/32233710
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 100,000, or, Around the World in 6,684 Days:
Yeah! A great milestone for the HST! A better space telescope will replace it, but it was the first true space telescope we have, and it will not be forgotten when it retires from service. :)
Posted by: GWP | Aug 11, 2008 12:25:47 PM
Thank you very much for the slideshows they were the most humble and facinating to watch, God create many forms that for sure. I love the Universe
Posted by: gloria | Aug 11, 2008 3:31:02 PM
Wow, the Hubble has surpassed alot of expectations. Hopefully JWeST (James Webb Space Telescope) will get going.
Posted by: Jason | Aug 11, 2008 4:34:54 PM
I was fortunate enough to see "first light" of Hubble when they fired it up, thanks to my big dish and NASA. Even though the images were fuzzy, it marked a definite milestone in astronomy. The repair job was first rate, and the Hubble has provided us with fantastic insights into the Universe, and some of the most spectacular images of the stars. To this day, we're still learning from Hubble and I do believe it should be kept in service as long as practicable. Even though better instruments will be launched, Hubble will still be capable of adding to astronomy's knowledge base.
Posted by: Andy | Aug 11, 2008 4:48:00 PM
The Hubble Space Telescope makes us realize how tiny we really are in the universe. With distances measured in terms of light years, we can look back in time billions of years. The human period is but a spit in the bucket of time and space. When all is said and done, we are nothing compared to the universe. Too bad I will never see time travel or fast enough space travel. Maybe when I cross over into the next life.
Posted by: Bob | Aug 12, 2008 8:26:28 AM
The Hubble telescope has brought endless amounts of stunning photos and knowledge about the universe. If the US government wasn't wasting their citizens money to spy on them, maintain pointless wars, and keep "harmful" drugs out of the hands of citizens, they could produce many more telescopes just like Hubble. I am a US citizen, I want my government to stop making spy satellites and start making more Hubbles
Posted by: Timothy Woodward | Aug 12, 2008 4:31:19 PM
Post a comment
