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A Journey to the End of Time

The Solar System in 3D, in real time

A simulation of the Solar System driven by real ephemerides. The Sun, the planets, Pluto and the major moons, space probes, the International Space Station, nearby stars and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way are where they really are at the chosen moment. You can run time from 1700 to 2100, fly from one object to another and look at the sky from anywhere on Earth.

Hubble

Satellite

Facts

Launch
24 April 1990 (mission STS-31)
Primary mirror
2.4 m
Altitude
about 480 km
Speed
about 27,000 km/h
Orbital period
about 95 minutes

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on 24 April 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. It orbits about 480 km up and has made more than 1.7 million observations. In 1983 NASA named it after the astronomer Edwin P. Hubble.

Its first images were blurred: because of a manufacturing error, the edge of the primary mirror was too flat by 0.003 mm. In December 1993 the astronauts of the first servicing mission, STS-61, installed corrective optics; in all they repaired and upgraded it over five servicing missions.

Sources