To me, it feels like only a couple of years ago that the famous Hubble telescope was launched. Of course, it was not. Hubble has been serving humanity for the past 30 years. Here is an abbreviated timeline of Hubble's discoveries and what it has meant for our understanding of the universe. Probably on a level of discovery, for its time, to be compared to that of Nicolaus Copernicus. (Who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it.)
Hubble was as far as the official record is concerned conceived in the 1940s. (I am sure others have thought of this before though)
1946 - First paper about space telescopes published.
1958 - NASA created.
1974 - First workgroup held to start a Hubble.
1977 - Hubble was officially started.
1990 - Hubble launched.
1993 - Major discoveries about the age of the universe.
1994 - Discovery of a supermassive black hole.
1995 - Oxygen found on Europa.
1996 - The birth of a star confirmed.
1998 - The universe is accelerating its expansion.
2001 - First direct visual evidence of planet growth released.
2001 - First exoplanet atmosphere directly detected.
2008 - First organic molecule detected on an exoplanet.
2012 - Milky Way & Andromeda galaxy's collision determined to be head-on.
2013 - Water vapor plumes observed on Europa.
2015 - First-ever predicted supernova captured.
2016 - Cosmic distance record broken.
2017 - Hubble observed source of gravitational waves.
Amazing what Hubble has done in space in the past 30 years. I hope the much delayed and anticipated launch of the James Web telescope (Though infrared scope - call it Hubble V2.0) will yield as much exciting information as Hubble did.
Read more here:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-timeline-full-text
Hubble was as far as the official record is concerned conceived in the 1940s. (I am sure others have thought of this before though)
1946 - First paper about space telescopes published.
1958 - NASA created.
1974 - First workgroup held to start a Hubble.
1977 - Hubble was officially started.
1990 - Hubble launched.
1993 - Major discoveries about the age of the universe.
1994 - Discovery of a supermassive black hole.
1995 - Oxygen found on Europa.
1996 - The birth of a star confirmed.
1998 - The universe is accelerating its expansion.
2001 - First direct visual evidence of planet growth released.
2001 - First exoplanet atmosphere directly detected.
2008 - First organic molecule detected on an exoplanet.
2012 - Milky Way & Andromeda galaxy's collision determined to be head-on.
2013 - Water vapor plumes observed on Europa.
2015 - First-ever predicted supernova captured.
2016 - Cosmic distance record broken.
2017 - Hubble observed source of gravitational waves.
Amazing what Hubble has done in space in the past 30 years. I hope the much delayed and anticipated launch of the James Web telescope (Though infrared scope - call it Hubble V2.0) will yield as much exciting information as Hubble did.
Read more here:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-timeline-full-text
