Hubble Science main-page
• The Hubble Deep Fields
• Measuring the age and the size of the Universe
• The lives of stars
• The solar neighbourhood
• The study of exoplanets and proto-planetary discs
• Black Holes, Quasars and Active Galaxies
• The formation of Stars
• The composition of the Universe
• Spyglasses into the Universe – Gravitational lenses
• Europe & Hubble

The Science from the Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble is an upgradeable, space-based telescope flying almost 600 km above most of our image-distorting atmosphere.

It is designed to take high-resolution images and accurate spectra by concentrating starlight to form sharper images than is possible from the ground, where the atmospheric ‘twinkling' of the stars limits the clarity of the images.

Therefore, despite its relatively modest size of 2.4 metres, Hubble is more than able to compete with ground-based telescopes that have light-collecting areas (mirrors) that are as much as 10 or 20 times larger.

Hubble's second huge advantage is its ability to observe near-infrared and ultraviolet light, which is otherwise filtered away by the atmosphere before it can reach ground-based telescopes. Find out more about the spacecraft Hubble and see images of it in flight.

Use the menu on the left to find out more about some of Hubble’s greatest scientific successes.

TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST SCIENCE FROM HUBBLE VISIT THE NEWS PAGE.