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Launched in 1990, the Hubble
Space Telescope became an instant
f ia sco i n orbit. D u r i ng i n- orbit te st-
ing, astronomers immediately found that the
2.4-meter mirror was f lawed. It had been
figured incorrectly at Perkin-Elmer due to a
lens in a testing instrument that was out of
place by 1.3 millimeters. The world’s greatest
space telescope became an instant boon-
doggle and the butt of jokes on the late-night
talk shows.
In December 1993, the first servicing mis-
sion, using the space shuttle Endeavour, fixed
the problem with a set of corrective optics.
COSTAR, the corrective optics package, was
supplemented with the Wide Field and
Planetary Camera 2, which also had correc-
tive optics and allowed for a series of magnificent images to be made.
All was right again with the world’s greatest in-orbit telescope.
On this 30th anniversary of the launching of Hubble, Senior Editor
Rich Talcott delivers a magnificently illustrated story highlighting
some of t he space tele scope’s g re ate st v ic tor ie s. A mong t hem i s ongo -
ing research into one of the greatest mysteries of cosmology: the
nature of dark energy. The fact that the universe’s expansion is accel-
erating and we don’t know the cause is somewhat astonishing, and
villages full of cosmologists are working on this problem to try to
understand it. Hubble played the key role in observing the distant
supernovae that revealed the accelerating cosmos.
Hubble has also contributed substantially to understanding how
stars form in the universe. In a series of so-called deep field expo-
sures, beginning in 1995, the telescope has produced looks at small
areas of the sky. A key result of studying these distant fields of
mostly galaxies has been deciphering the rate at which stars form
as a function of distance or time. This helps to reveal how galaxies
themselves formed over time, and how they have evolved.
And then there are the images: Hubble has created many thou-
sands of spectacular pictures of the cosmos, the best ever made. One
of them is the so-called Pillars of Creation, towers of dust in the
Eagle Nebula, a shot created by our very own Jeff Hester. But so
many others are there. Enjoy the sample within this issue. It is a
celebration of the greatest astronomical instrument ever made.Yo u r s t r u l y,
David J. Eicher
EditorRemembering
Hubble
Editor David J. Eicher
Design Director LuAnn Williams Belter
EDITORIAL
Senior Editor Richard Talcott
Production Editor Elisa R. Neckar
Associate Editors Alison Klesman, Jake Parks
Copy Editor McLean Bennett
Editorial Assistant Hailey McLaughlin
ART
Contributing Design Director Elizabeth Weber
Illustrator Roen Kelly
Production Specialist Jodi Jeranek
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Michael E. Bakich, Bob Berman, Adam Block,
Glenn F. Chaple Jr., Martin George, Tony Hallas,
Phil Harrington, Korey Haynes, Jeff Hester, Alister Ling,
Stephen James O’Meara, Martin Ratcliffe, Raymond Shubinski
SCIENCE GROUP
Executive Editor Becky Lang
Design Director Dan Bishop
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Buzz Aldrin, Marcia Bartusiak, Jim Bell, Timothy Ferris,
Alex Filippenko, Adam Frank, John S. Gallagher lll,
Daniel W. E. Green, William K. Hartmann, Paul Hodge,
Edward Kolb, Stephen P. Maran, Brian May, S. Alan Stern,
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responsible for unsolicited materials.The so-called Pillars
of Creation, towers
of dust in the Eagle
Nebula, became the
most celebrated
image ever made
with HST. NASA, ESA, AND
THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM
(STSCI/AURA)Follow the
Dave’s Universe blog:
http://www.Astronomy.
com/davesuniverse
Follow Dave Eicher
on Twitter:
@deicherstar