Not yet imagined: what's next for Hubble?

Today’s Video of the Day from NASA Goddard describes the ambition and curiosity that has driven the Hubble Space Telescope mission for more than three decades, and continues to propel the technology forward today.

Hubble has not only captured unprecedented images of space, but has also collected massive amounts of data, which offer key insights into the universe.  Hubble has provided scientists with observations of objects as close as the moon, and as far away as the most remote galaxies.

In 1995, when astronomers pointed Hubble toward what appeared to be an empty patch of sky in Ursa Major, the telescope captured an image of over 3,000 galaxies that were too distant to be detected by other telescopes. According to NASA, some of the galaxies were so young, they had not even begun serious star formation.

“Hubble’s launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope. Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 30 years of operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same,” says NASA.

Video Credit: NASA Goddard 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer