A
space telescope is a powerful scientific instrument that is launched and placed in outer space to observe and study distant objects in the universe, like stars, galaxies, planets, and other celestial bodies. Unlike telescopes on Earth,
space telescopes are not affected by Earth's atmosphere, enabling them to make clearer and more detailed observations.
Full definition
While the differences between orbiting telescopes are a bit complicated, we should be clear that
space telescopes in general are going to provide us with a sharper picture than terrestrial ones.
Many research teams have previously suggested assembling
large space telescopes from smaller modules, with examples ranging from 30 to 100 meters in diameter.
One significant aspect of this discovery is the fact that it's the first of its kind to be made by an
orbiting space telescope.
Even if the next
space telescope only comes close, the one after that will very likely do the trick.
By then, of course, entirely new generations
of space telescopes will be taking shape in the labs.
Or,
future space telescopes might even be able to pick up signatures of oxygen, water, carbon dioxide and methane — indicators that the planet might be somebody's home.
The
Kepler space telescope launched in 2009 and stared at a single patch of sky in the constellation Cygnus for four years.
An international team used a battery of instruments — including the Hubble and
Spitzer Space telescopes for optical and infrared light, and the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, for radio astronomy — to locate the five and confirm that they were individual galaxies and not just clusters of smaller galaxies.
It's all being housed in the Mikulski Archive
for Space Telescopes (MAST), which contains data from missions like Hubble, Kepler, GALEX and other NASA initiatives, from as far back as the 1970s.
Astronomer Boss gives an inside view of how
new space telescopes like Kepler and Corot are on the verge of finding Earth - like worlds around other stars.
When NASA's Kepler
space telescope launched in March 2009, astronomers had no proof that any star other than the sun harbored an Earth - sized planet (with a diameter within 25 percent of Earth's).
Hurt's illustration was created to highlight scientific conclusions on the inner galaxy from a team of astronomers led by Robert Benjamin and associated with the Spitzer
infrared space telescope.
Distant blasts could also help pinpoint the locations of faint GRB host galaxies that could be detected
by space telescopes like the soon - to - be-refurbished Hubble Space Telescope or NASA's infrared James Webb Telescope, which is set to launch in 2013.
«We're living in a golden age of astronomy,» Fragile said, referring to the wealth of knowledge generated from
space telescopes like Hubble to the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, to land - based telescopes such as Keck, and more.
This strategy has been used for decades to create radio telescopes the size of the Earth, and in 1997 the Japanese Space Agency launched the
first space telescope dedicated to radio interferometry, HALCA.
Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and
Chandra space telescopes discovered swarms of similar quasars hiding in dusty galaxies in the distant universe.
Proposals for the tentatively - named Advanced Technology Large - Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) have actually been in the works since the year 2000, but with progress on the James
Webb space telescope progressing smoothly, the agency is ready to start taking a more detailed approach.
Before joining ALMA, Dr Whyborn worked at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) as Instrument Scientist and System Engineer of the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far - Infrared (HIFI), one of three instruments launched on - board the
Herschel space telescope in 2009.
Earth's turbulent, starlight - blurring atmosphere is also a severe obstacle to imaging faint planets from ground - based observatories, and most experts agree that the solution is to
use space telescopes.
By comparison, learning how to probe the atmospheres of faraway exoplanets and assess what might or might not be a biosignature will have to be done entirely with next
generation space telescopes and the massive ground telescopes in development.
«Astronomical surveys
from space telescopes like Planck or Hubble observe a large segment of the visible universe while sophisticated simulations so far could only model very small parts of the universe, making a direct comparison virtually impossible,» says Klaus Dolag.
The European Space Agency launched its
Gaia space telescope in December 2013 to map the locations of a billion stars in the Milky Way, but it can also spot objects a little closer to home.
WISE 1828 +2650 was discovered in 2011 from data collected by NASA's 40 cm (16 in) Wide - field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
space telescope at infrared wavelength.
NASA's Kepler
space telescope detected the Mars - sized planet when it passed in front of its parent star, temporarily blocking some of its light.
HST is too busy to accommodate a dedicated search of this length and no
other space telescope currently available is capable of making the needed observations.
Schweickart, along with former space shuttle astronaut Edward Lu and others, has for years pursued the goal of creating the technological capacity (through a privately financed
Sentinel space telescope mission) and encouraging governmental responsibility (through discussions with NASA, the United Nations and other relevant entities) to address this long - understood, but largely discounted, threat.
Giant planets may evict most of their smaller brethren from orbits, partly explaining why the Kepler
space telescope saw so many single - planet systems.
TESS will mostly search for planets elsewhere in the sky away from Proxima Centauri, near the ecliptic poles, regions directly above and below our solar system that are easy to continuously monitor with
most space telescopes.
Phrases with «space telescope»