Light is concentrated by bouncing off of the mirror. So the mirror just has to have the right curved shape. It is much easier to make a large, near-perfect mirror than to make a large, near-perfect lens. Also, since mirrors are one-sided, they are easier than lenses to clean and polish. But mirrors have their own problems.
Have you ever looked into a spoon and noticed your reflection is upside down? The curved mirror in a telescope is like a spoon: It flips the image. Luckily, the solution is simple. We just use other mirrors to flip it back.
A simple reflecting telescope uses mirrors to help us see faraway objects. Since they are much lighter than lenses, mirrors are a lot easier to launch into space. Space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope have allowed us to capture views of galaxies and nebulas far away from our own solar system.
Set to launch in December , the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built. China is looking to launch a space telescope called Xuntian in , and state media says it will observe an area of space times larger than Hubble can. I fear the space community is really going to feel the loss when Hubble stops working. A new simulation shows that when the DART mission hits the target asteroid, it could send it spinning and wobbling in a dramatic way.
The Decadal Survey, expected at the end of September, sets the tone for a new era of space exploration.
One team of researchers wants the survey to use AI to forecast growing science fields. Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.
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The two telescopes are actually complementary. Hubble has limited capabilities at near-infrared wavelengths, which is where JWST will really shine. The next-generation space telescope is perfectly poised to study things like forming stars and planets, extremely distant galaxies, and even the atmospheres of exoplanets, which are all best seen in infrared. But Hubble is best suited for observing in the ultraviolet UV and optical ranges of the light spectrum. During the final space shuttle mission to service the telescope in , Atlantis crew members gave Hubble a major upgrade during five separate spacewalks.
All this means that Hubble got a renewed lease on life that may well carry it through several more decades. The final servicing mission also included the installation of a Soft Capture and Rendezvous System, or SCRS — a ring-shaped docking port to enable future spacecraft likely robotic to connect to the telescope and safely deorbit it.
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