Happy 20th. Hubble (For Tomorrow)

As you may know (and if you've seen the art work on todays Google homepage, you probably have an idea.) today is the 20th anniversary of the Hubble telescope being launched into space to give us practically all the spectacular (an understatement) "real view" (that is what a human would see, not infra red or x ray images.) images of space that are ingrained in popular circles. Yes Hubble is the embodiment (but not the first) of an idea by a bloke called Lyman Spitzer in 1946. Spitzer, like every other astronomer, knew that whilst the atmosphere was very useful for the act of breathing, and keeping us warm, and safe from cosmic radiation, was a bit of a pisser for stargazing. That murky turbulent wall of gas, just gets in the way of taking good pictures, distorting images, and blocking out more distant and harder to see stuff. But stick a telescope in orbit and you kill two birds with one stone. Firstly there is no atmosphere (well hardly any. It's about 350 km up, depending on orientation. There's a trace of atmosphere which will eventually drag it down to burn up point in a few decades time. There is a mission planned to artificially do this in about 2014.), so you can get crisp images, and don't have to worry about clouds, turbulent flow and physical pollution and secondly there is no light pollution, so you have optimal viewing conditions. This is music to every astronomers ear. Although not the first, Hubble is the most well known space telescope. There is something about the way it shows us the grandeur of the cosmos, in human terms, rather than a radio or microwave construct of the cosmos, that probably accounts for it's endearing appeal to the layman. It is no exaggeration to say that Hubble is probably the most well known artificial satellite to the general human race. Stop someone in the street, anyone; they'll know what Hubble is. Everyone remembers the dodgy mirror that had to be replaced. We all know it looks like a big domestic hot water boiler (it's about the size of a single decker bus) covered in tin foil, or a big packet of biscuits with two solar panels attached. Hubble, and it's images have become an icon. It's in Naked Gun 2. The Disney world ride "Mission to Mars", as an object everyone knows what it is. It's images (mistakenly called photographs. Hubble doesn't have a giant reel of film in it!!) of stunning nebula's, and pillars of gas light years high, that are more beautiful and weirder than any SF effects artist could dream up alone, are used for space shots in sci fi films. (Babylon 5 used a lot of the images for nebula effects.) Sombrero Galaxies, storms on Neptune Aurora on Saturn (a favourite of mine and pictured.) Dust clouds that result in the birth of stars. What perhaps people don't know is how appropriate the name Hubble is for a device that has opened up our knowledge of space, and given us perspective on how the universe is physically composed. Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who it is named after; is largely remembered for showing us that the universe consists of more than the Milky Way galaxy, than was originally thought. He also went a long way towards implementing the "smearing of light" that fast moving object (like galaxies) obtain, and using it to calculate how far away they are. He gave us a key ability to define the shape of the universe, our place on it, and the sheer scope of it. It is a sweet irony that the telescope that bears his name continues his work, and allows us to peer further than we thought possible.
Hubble telescope has; in my mind done us all a favour by promoting public awareness of astronomy. Anyone can request to take up some of Hubbles extremely rationed time to look at whatever bit of sky they wish (though how far your request might go to be submitted is another matter). Hubble owes its continuing functioning existence to it's fans. Nasa had to reject their original plan to let it run its course in orbit, by not servicing it after the Shuttle Columbia was destroyed in 2003. It seems likely that it will continue; from its fourth service in 2009 to be our roving eye in space til 2014, when the larger and more sophisticated James Webb telescope is put into action. Sadly Hubble won't be retrieved by a shuttle and put on display in the Smithsonian Institute, after it's operational life is over, as the shuttle is due to be canned. But still, what a career though.