Hubble Telescope: What is it & The Most Detailed Observation Ever + Bonus Exoplanet info
Hey everyone it's been a while since i made a post relevant with astronomy and planet observation. In this post we gonna talk about 3 different things that below you can read in bullets.
1)Hubble Telescope: What is it and does
2)WASP-39b: Few things about that exoplanet
3)Observation: A combination of the other 2, an observation made by Hubble of that particular exoplanet.
Hubble Telescope
Space telescopes as a general concept were proposed during 1923. Hubble space telescope funded in 1970 for launching in 1983 but due to some technical difficulties it was up and ready at 1990. It's name comes from astronomer Edwin Hubble who at 1920 used the largest known telescope and discovered new galaxies through space. Hubble space telescope or as we gonna call it from now on HST ( after the initials) is one of 4 Great observatory satellites.
The other 3 Great observatories are the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and last but not least the Spitzer Space Telescope. These observatories earned the name "Great" as they are part of 4 different missions that were designed to examine and notice particular measurements as well as energies of the electromagnetic spectrum using different technologies.
That gave me the idea to write 3 posts about the rest of the observatories!
Funding
Back to HST that is a space based telescope with the unique element of being serviced in space. Before i let you know more about that let's dive into it's funding because i think it's quite important to understand it's worth and value at that time. Although at first everything went pretty smoothly and the U.S congress was ready to give the money, during 1974 and after some public spending cuts the whole funding for the telescope was deleted.
The whole community of astronomers were badly hurt and started coordinated efforts to find a solution. They talked with congressmen and senators and in general with anyone that could help them find money to fund the project. Even the National Academy of Science said that the project had to start over again and the senate agreed to give half of the money that had been approved previously by congress.
Because of that, some of the specs were smaller, other were completely erased from the plan and also they had to cooperate with the European Space Agency. The deal between them was that the European Space Agency will provide some extra money as well as supply of instruments and people to help over. In exchange the European astronomers will earn at least 15% of observing time.
Space Service
As i mentioned the whole service had to be in space. This didn't took long enough as the main mirror of the telescope had issues and needed some correction. In total the service missions where 5 with the first one being in 1993 and the last one at 2009. According to the scientists Hubble space telescope can hold up till 2030-2040 so we have a lot more amazing discoveries to see. The way HST takes energy is by absorbing the sun light by it's two 25-foot solar panels (about 5.500 watts).
Why is Hubble Space Telescope Important?
HST is responsible for many discoveries and scientific breakthroughs through the years. It has made more than 1.3 million observations and provides each year about 10 Terabytes of data. Also, it had helped scientists publish more than 15.000 scientific papers something that show it's importance. Now i don't know where to begin by start counting all the achievements and accomplishments HST is responsible for but i will make a try and talk about some of them below:
Universe Age: One of the most important things were that with the help of Hubble telescope, scientists managed to measure universe more accurately and determine it's age. From their previously prediction that universe is between 10 to 20 billion years they now estimate that it is 13.7 billion years
Universe Expansion: At first scientist believe that under the influence of gravity universe is decelerating but instead with the help of HST it is accelerating. An interesting fact that 3 members of the teams that said that have earned Nobel prizes!
Black Holes: Black holes wasn't something new but the new thing here that was previously believe to be just a theory was that a lot of dark holes are in the center of galaxies and that is actually quite common.
Other Findings: Among other findings are galaxies far from our own and exoplanets that orbit around suns.
Exoplanet WASP-39b
Wasp-39b is an exoplanet in the Virgo Constellation that is discovered back in 2011 by as the name suggest also Wasp project and it is 700 light years away from Earth. For a complete orbit around it's star it needs 4 days and the whole big deal about this planet is that it contains water.
If you remember what i said in the beginning, i will merge the exoplanet with HST in order to let you know about something really cool.
A team of scientists with the help of Hubble's data and of course older ones they managed to study the atmosphere of this particular exoplanet and to be more exact to give them the credits they need, that study is considered the most complete one of an exoplanet's atmosphere.
What the scientists discovered and it's quite big news is that the way some exoplanets form can be totally different than those in our solar system and the brightest example is Wasp-39b. This exoplanet based on it's radius,mass and in general it's measurements is considered a ''hot Saturn'' meaning that it should look like our own Saturn but the reality is a bit different. The exoplanet had no ring around it and no clouds. Moreover it has water vapour something scientists believed that they would see as Saturn has to but they surprised by the fact it has 3 times over Saturn. Now a series of mysteries that the scientists solved for us will follow.
That much water means that in the exoplanets atmosphere some heavier elements had to be enter. Those elements had to be iced ones in order to give that much water. That means based on the distance between it's host star that the planet formed a bit further that it is now as now it is a hot planet. That with it's turn show us that exoplanets have more to give us and we can't fully understand yet how they are formed, what mysteries lie in that process and how they evolve. It completely changed the perspective scientists had about exoplanet's forming!