#ngscience #hubble #jameswebbspacetelescope Discover the orbiting distances and some of Earth's most important space exploration tools.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space-based observatory that was launched into low Earth orbit on April 24, 1990, by the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble and is operated by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The telescope is about 340 miles (550 km) above the Earth's surface and orbits the Earth once every 97 minutes. Hubble has a 2.4-meter mirror and a suite of scientific instruments that allow it to observe the universe in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. It has made many groundbreaking discoveries, including the first accurate determination of the rate of expansion of the universe, the first direct image of a planet outside our solar system, and the discovery of dark energy.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite that orbits the Earth at an altitude of approximately 408 kilometers (253 miles). It was launched on November 20, 1998, and has been continuously inhabited since November 2000. The ISS is a joint project between NASA, Roscosmos (the Russian space agency), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The ISS is used for a variety of scientific research and experiments in microgravity, as well as for testing technologies that could be used for future space exploration missions. The ISS is about the size of a football field and has living and working areas for astronauts from various countries.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope that is set to launch on October 31, 2021, by an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. It is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The JWST is designed to be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and will be located at the second Lagrange point (L2), which is about 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth. The telescope has a 6.5-meter primary mirror, which is more than two and a half times larger than Hubble's mirror. The JWST is designed to study the early universe, the formation of stars and galaxies, and the atmospheres of exoplanets. It will also be used to observe some of the most distant objects in the universe, which will provide insight into the origins and evolution of our universe.
