Shuttle Discovery in a rosy glow [ 1059 ]

Sunset on Hubble Telescope Mission

• Hubble Telescope's Cultural Impact

  Image courtesy NASA

  Twenty years ago Saturday, the NASA space shuttle Discovery launched from Florida carrying what would become one of the most iconic instruments in astronomy: the Hubble telescope.

  (See a National Geographic magazine time line of the Hubble telescope's greatest hits.)

  Since then Hubble has suffered a key mirror malfunction and shuttle tragedies that put critical repair and upgrade missions at risk. Even so, NASA mission managers say Hubble has exceeded all scientific expectations during its two decades in orbit. (See pictures of Hubble's hottest science discoveries.)
  
  Thanks to the space telescope's jaw-dropping images—like this picture of the stellar nursery known as NGC 602 released in January 2007—"Hubble has done what maybe no other scientific experiment before it had done," said astrophysicist Mario Livio.

  "Hubble has gotten people interested in space and science related to the universe who never had any interest in this kind of science before. Hubble images have become a part of our culture," added Livio, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Hubble's science and operations center.
  
  To commemorate Hubble's 20th anniversary, NASA has released Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time, a book of images—including the pictures presented here—that best highlight the telescope's scientific and societal impacts, according to NASA astronomers.
  
  —Brian Handwerk

  Published April 24, 2010

• Hubble Telescope's Cosmic Eskimo

  Image courtesy NASA

  Using a ground-based telescope, astronomer and telescope maker William Herschel was the first to spot this nebula. Even from Earth's surface, the so-called Eskimo nebula—which sits about 5,000 light-years away—resembles a human face wearing a furry parka.

  The Hubble telescope, however, saw details Herschel could never have dreamed of when it took a picture of the nebula shortly after a December 1999 servicing mission.
  
  Hubble revealed a central, dying star blowing out gasses and materials at high speed. The doomed stellar "face" is surrounded by a disk strewn with cometlike objects, which leave behind tails as they streak away from the sunlike star. (Read about the new Imax movie Hubble 3D.)

  The picture is among those that best highlight the Hubble telescope's scientific and societal impacts, according to astronomers on the 20th anniversary of Hubble.

  Published April 24, 2010

• Image courtesy NASA

  A sunset bathes the space shuttle Discovery in a rosy glow during the second mission to service the Hubble telescope in February 1997.
  
  That mission outfitted the telescope with new infrared-sensitive equipment so Hubble could see the most distant galaxies in the universe. Light from these objects gets stretched into longer, redder wavelengths by the universe's accelerated expansion.
  
  During Hubble's 20 years in space, shuttle crews have visited the orbiter five times to make repairs and upgrade the instrument's capabilities. The final scheduled service mission was completed in 2009. (See Hubble's first pictures following the final servicing mission and read "Hubble Renewed," from National Geographic magazine.)

  The picture is among those that best highlight the Hubble telescope's scientific and societal impacts, according to astronomers on the 20th anniversary of Hubble.

  Published April 24, 2010