List some of the important features of Hubble Space Telescope.
Some of the remarkable features of Hubble Space Telescope are listed below:
1. Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts.
2. The HST design with two hyperbolic mirrors is known for good imaging performance over a wide field of view. During the launch, scientist found that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, which severely affected the telescope’s capabilities. After a servicing mission in 1993, the telescope was restored to its intended quality.
3. Four servicing missions were performed from 1993-2002 and the fifth was completed in 2009. The telescope is now expected to function until at least 2014.
4. Hubble’s orbit outside the distortion of earth’s atmosphere allows it to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light. Hubble’s Ultra Deep Field image is the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe’s most distant object.