Why is the Hubble Space Telescope important to modern astronomy?
1 Answer
The Hubble Telescope is located outside of the Earth's atmosphere and so overcomes many of the problems faced by terrestrial telescopes.
Explanation:
The Hubble Telescope is located outside of the Earth's atmosphere and so overcomes many of the problems faced by terrestrial telescopes.
Firstly the Earth's atmosphere distorts light. A good example of this is a red sunset, or a blue sky. Here certain wavelengths (colours) of light have been absorbed more by the atmosphere than others, so that only the remaining wavelengths reach your eyes, or a telescope that you're trying to observe the heavens with.
Secondly, the Earth's atmosphere is very good at absorbing the majority of the ultra-violet part (UV) part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is great for us as strong UV light causes us radiation damage, but prevents terrestrial telescopes from collecting much information contained within this type of light.
Thirdly, artificial light, such as streetlights causes problems for terrestrial telescopes as it can overwhelm the very faint light signals that are being observed from the skies. As Hubble is way above this light pollution, it can detect much fainter (lower intensity) light signals.
I'm sure there are more advantages that Hubble has over terrestrial telescopes. Perhaps other contributors could elaborate.
Rory.
