Speaking of the birth of time, the Big Bang theory states that all matter and energy were once contained in compressed matter. It's really unimaginable.
We don't know whatever happened between the Big Bang and the tiny time afterward known as the "Planck Time" - named after the physicist Max Planck. The first evidence to support the theory of the expanding world was found by American astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1929.Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer educated at Chicago and Oxford universities. From 1919, he worked at Mount Wilson observatory. Hubble was first to state that galactic nebulae were galaxies outside the Milky Way. In 1929, he established the Hubble constant, which enabled him to estimate the age and size of the universe.
The Hubble space telescope is named after him.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Telescope, launched in 1990, orbits 569 km or 353 miles above the atmosphere. Its launch sped humanity to one of its significant advances in science. The telescope's celestial position allows it to gather much more information than larger instruments that are earth-bound. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches planet Earth, gives it a view of the universe that typically surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.
The telescope is an instrument for the entire astronomical community and the policies that govern the telescope have greatly contributed to its incredible productivity. NASA has to be proud of Hubble and his telescope as it is one of its most successful science missions, providing tremendous information on many astronomical mysteries. For example, its gaze has helped determine the universe's age and the identity of quasars, among numerous statistical data.
Resources:
- Dictionary of Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org
No comments:
Post a Comment