Celebrating Hubble's 20th Anniversary. An Appreciative Astronomer!

Happy TGIF! I can’t believe it’s already November. Here in the states, we’re about to turn our clocks back and gain an extra hour. Gaining that extra hour made me think ‘time’ and thinking such made me realize I’ve only a few weekends remaining before my ‘What every girl wants under her tree’ Christmas blog event begins. Why am I worried about that? Well, come December weekdays and weekends alike are going to be full of giveaways. AND, I really wanted to recognize a certain anniversary before the year ends.

The 20th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope.

Yep, you heard me correctly! I figured now was the perfect time to give kudos to this amazing telescope. As some of you know, I’m an amateur astronomer. I think having Urania, Muse of Astronomy (part of ongoing A-musing the World Blog Event on the weekdays) reminded me I’m nearly out of time to give the Hubble her due recognition. After all, I’ll bet Urania had her hands in the inspiration behind this unbelievable telescope that’s given so much back to us mere Earthlings.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Hubble Space Telescope, she was carried into orbit by a space shuttle in 1990. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency, and is operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

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, for instance, is the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe's most distant objects. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

I don’t know about you but I’m so appreciative for the images that the Hubble Telescope has provided us thus far. While I only show a few here, there are hundreds and hundreds. Cruise the internet, you’re sure to find tons. To see the best of the best now and learn more, head over to The Hubble Site Organization.

I still can’t get over what the Hubble’s shown us. Just look at these pictures. Absolutely amazing! Kinda makes you feel like a tiny little blip in time, eh?

Interested in learning more about what the Hubble’s provided us? UTube has a great documentary series you can watch. Start at the Hubble Telescope- Chapter One. From there you’ll see chapter’s 2-8 listed along the right hand side.

No time to sit back and watch documentaries? This video gives you an overview of many fantastic Hubble pictures. Check out… Look! Up in the Sky! The very best of Hubble.

As I adore astronomy here’s a FUN EXTRA. Earth time!

It’s not too hot, not too cold. The Goldilocks Planet- Class M. Remember hearing something about this on the news recently? I thought it was cool enough to post about. Check out this video…

All right, I'm off to celebrate my son's Birthday this weekend. I wish you all the best and hope to see you back Monday morning as my A-musing the World Blog Event continues!

Cheers
~Sky