Hubble Anniversary

The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, the telescope was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 by the space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS31 mission, since then it has orbited the Earth at about 540 km high, in 2024 to celebrate the 34th anniversary astronomers have taken a snapshot of the small Dumbbell nebula also known as Messier 76 (m76).

The nebula is located 3,400 light years away in the direction of the northern circumpolar constellation of Perseus, M76 is classified as a planetary nebula and is an expanding bubble of bright gases that were ejected from a dying Red giant star, the giant star. It finally collapsed at the end of its days and transformed into an ultra-dense and hot white dwarf.

A planetary nebula is not a planet, nor is it related to them, but it has that name because astronomers in the 17th century who used low-power telescopes thought that this type of object looked very similar to a planet and unfortunately this is the end that Our sun awaits, our sun does not have enough mass to explode in a supernova, what it will do is transform into a red giant expelling its outer layers and swallowing the planets Mercury Venus, Earth and Mars, then its core will transform into a white dwarf

The results of the Hubble space telescope are impressive, with it more than a million objects have been observed, Hubble is an all-terrain vehicle that has been used for practically all types of astronomical research from studying planets and moons in our own solar system, to observing distant stars galaxies, supernovae, exoplanets and other astrophysical phenomena and even more; since thanks to Hubble we have been able to investigate the origins and expansion of the universe.

There is a great advantage in having telescopes in space: they are no longer affected by meteorological factors such as clouds, humidity, dust, nor by light pollution generated by human activity, and some of them are free from the effects of satellite constellations. , some but not all because in the case of the Hubble space telescope it is not saved from the light streaks of artificial satellites.

In March 2023, nature magazine published a study showing that SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation also affects Hubble images and the Starlink constellation is just one of several that are planned to be created, if a solution is not found with telescopes. spacecraft will have to abandon low Earth orbit, but Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX and promoter of Starlink, also offers solutions.

One of the problems for Hubble to continue working is that its orbit is decaying little by little. If it continues like this, in a few years it will end up rubbing against atmospheric gases, losing speed and falling to the Earth and disintegrating in the Earth's atmosphere, to avoid this tragic end. The telescope would have to be taken to a higher altitude and, if possible, above the height at which the satellite constellations are located.

In 2022 Elon Musk proposed rescuing Hubble through a free SpaceX expedition, the method would be to push the telescope with a dragon ship to a higher orbit, supposedly he would do it “for free” but with Elon Musk you have to put it in quotes, no It is the first time that it offers a service at no cost and then passes the bill, but free or not, rescuing Hubble and taking it to a better orbit would be wonderful news for all of world astronomy.

But Hubble is worth rescuing, if there are other more powerful space observatories such as the James Web; and space observatories are like superheroes, each one has different powers and can be used for different strategies. Hubble is currently working in coordination with James Webb and is achieving extraordinary results because in astronomy the objectives to observe are millions and The time to observe them is limited, so the more eyes you have the better, so let's get to work and rescue Hubble.

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