Hubble Space Telescope

Launched in Earths’s orbit in 1990, named after ‘Edwin Hubble’ an American astronomer. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images. It revolves around Earth at an altitude of 340 miles (547 km) at around 17,000 mph (27360 kph). It has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990. And has helped scientists to publish more than 15,000 papers based on its observations. Making it one of the most productive telescopes ever launched.

Hubble Specifications

Length	13.2 m (43.5 feet)
Weight (At launch)	10,886 kg (24,000 lbs)
Weight (After servicing missions)	12246 kg (27,000 lbs)
Diameter	4.2 m (14 feet)
Optical Capability	115 - 2500 nanometers (Ultraviolet to Infrared)
Pointing accuracy	0.007 arcseconds
Primary mirror diameter	2.4 m (94.5 inches)
Primary mirror weight	828 kg (1825 lbs)
Secondary mirror diameter	0.3 m (12 inches)
Secondary mirror weight	27.4 pounds
Batteries	6 nickel-hydrogen

What is Arcseconds?

The measure of an angle. A circle can be seen as 360 degrees. 1 degree can be divided into minutes. where 1 minute = 1/60th of a degree. An arcsecond is then 1/60th of a minute.

Interesting Facts:

Hubble completes one orbit in about 95 minutes.
It transmits about 150 gigabits of raw science data every week. 10 terabytes of new data per year.
To take images of distant, faint objects, Hubble must be steady and accurate. The telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating over 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 1 mile.
Hubble’s primary mirror was so finely polished that if you scaled it to be the diameter of the Earth, you would not find a bump more than 6 inches tall.