SkyMan says, "30 years ago today, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched". 4/24/90

SkyMan

It's hard to believe that 30 years ago today the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched.

I was watching a YouTube video earlier this week of an interview between Steven Hawking, Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke. I would guess that the talk was dated in the mid to late 1980's, as they were talking about things that people would only be able to verify once the HST was launched, such as a couple of questions that today we would now consider very basic... e.g. what was the age of the Universe, did black holes exist, and what was the most likely ending of the Universe, ie. would it expand forever or would gravity eventually cause it to crunch back together. All of these questions, and many others have been answered by the HST. On top of the purely scientific bounty of the HST have also been images of incredible aesthetic beauty.

Post a coin or medallion from any time in the last 30 years, or post a Hubble picture you like.

I've been lucky enough to meet and talk with 9 of the 32 astronauts who conducted Hubble missions (several were on multiple missions). It's obvious that for every single one of them, working on the HST was the highlight of their astronaut careers.

Here's a lucite I own with a piece of HST insulation in it (a little under 2" in length). I've talked to the astronaut (Steve Smith) who took it off the HST.

Here's one I'm sure you've all seen, the Pillars of Creation. A picture by Hubble of a nebula being affected by shock waves (from super nova etc.) causing the less dense material/gas clumps to get blown away, while the more dense material/gas clumps stick around and clump together, forming into pillars (from this angle). Inside those "pillars" new stars are being born. It may very well have been, 4.8 billion years ago (200 million years before the sun reached critical density) that our solar system's stellar neighborhood looked very much like this.

Goldbully

Did you just say that 1990 was 30 years ago???

CoinJunkie

One of the best Imax experiences I ever had was watching Hubble at the Smithsonian's theater!

ricko

The 'Pillars of Creation' has always been my favorite Hubble picture...And no doubt, the Hubble has provided an incredible amount of information and answered many questions.... or at least provided information in the pursuit of answers....Cheers, RickO

BryceM

If you've never heard of the huge mistake with the primary mirror that was discovered after launch it's a tremendously interesting story. NASA worked out a fix - basically a set of "glasses" to correct the problems with the mirror, installed them, and gave to us images like this:

Here's a comparison shot of "before" and "after" the fix:

OldEastside

I love this stuff......thanks Sy

Steve

JesseKraft

2019-W $5 gold, Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative.
American Numismatic Society, 2019.8.5

JesseKraft

@SkyMan . I remember when the Pillars of Creation was first released to the public. It blew my mind! I recall trying to explain it to a friend as "giant trees in space that give birth to stars." She thought I was absolutely nuts.

Cameonut

1990 no S

BLUEJAYWAY

Looking back to see where it all began.