The Beauty of Space
If you've looked at any pictures of Outer Space lately, chances are good you've seen at least one image drawn from the Cosmos by the Hubble space telescope, the most powerful space telescope currently in orbit. The telescope is named after Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer who was the first to demonstrate that galaxies existed outside of our own Milky Way. The telescope is named after him because this discovery had an enormous influence on the way we view our Universe.
The Hubble telescope was launched in 1990, which makes it an incredibly long-lived space mission. It's still going strong after almost 20 years. This is in part because of the way the telescope is serviced in space by astronauts when it needs fixing or for routine maintenance. So far there have been a total of 4 servicing missions, one about every three years. Thanks to that, Hubble is in fine condition, and set to continue working until its orbit brings it back to Earth in ten years or so.
Perhaps the most famous of Hubble's many fantastic images of space is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photograph. It was taken over almost an entire year, and shows just a small region of space. The galaxies visible in that photo are estimated to be 13 billion years old. It's the longest-reaching shot ever taken using visible light instead of infrared.
Many of the other photos Hubble takes are more beautiful though, showing the strange and lovely phenomena of our Universe. The pictures of the Horsehead and Tarantula nebulas are great examples of these inspiring photos.