everything in nature from the most
distant quasar to the coldest chunk of
cometary ice shines in a particular
wavelength of light depending on its
temperature many phenomena in the
universe cannot be seen with the naked
eye hot objects such as Paul SARS or
dying stars emit gamma rays and x-rays
while cold objects such as stars being
formed emit light in the infrared these
wavelengths can only be detected with
very sophisticated instruments placed
above our atmosphere to observe the full
spectrum of light NASA plans to place an
orbit around the Earth for Great
observatories
the first of the four observatories will
be the Hubble Space Telescope the most
complex and powerful astronomical
instrument ever built
once in orbit the Space Telescope will
see the sky in all its splendor stripped
of the murky veil of Earth's atmosphere
at the heart of the telescope is its
near perfect 8-foot mirror it took two
years for perkin-elmer to grind college
and coke this single piece of glass
capable of focusing light that began its
journey through space 10 billion years
ago you can think of the Space Telescope
as a time machine because the speed of
light is flying on it it takes time for
light to get from there to here okay if
we're looking at an object that's 10
billion light-years away which is about
as far as space telescope can see and
define what is singing we're seeing an
object whose white left at 10 billion
years ago the universe is believed to
have begun about 15 billion years ago in
an explosion called the Big Bang since
then everything in the universe has been
moving away from us will galaxies and
the billions of stars they contain keep
getting further and further away or will
everything eventually contract Space
Telescope will provide the first real
answers to these questions images of the
planets will be ten times clearer than
those taken by the best earthbound
telescopes in use today they will be
similar to those relayed by the robotic
spacecraft Voyager during its brief
encounter with the planets but Space
Telescope during its 15 year lifespan
will be capable of studying these
objects over an extended period of time
it's fine guidance sensors can point for
a period of 24 hours with a stability of
seven milliseconds according to NASA's
director of astrophysics dr. Charles
pellerin if you were to take a laser in
Washington and aim it at New York City
where the accuracy instability of seven
million seconds you could have a person
stand on a World Trade Center and hold a
dime that laser would never depart from
that time and this is what the device
that's very large weighs about 24,000
pounds as wheel spinning has motors
meeting antennas turning with all this
activity
device will still point to any place in
space with that decision quasars are
probably the most distant objects in our
universe they have an energy output a
thousand times our whole galaxy yet all
this energy appears to be coming from a
point of light the size of our solar
system where is all this energy coming
from looking at this and other mysteries
will be the second of the great
telescopes the gamma ray observatory
there are some theories that say the
energy coming from quasars may be caused
by a huge black hole sucking up whole
stars and then somehow spitting the
energy back out the third of the Great
observatories the advanced x-ray
astrophysics facility will study violent
events of this nature which emit vast
amounts of x-rays we see cataclysmic
violence high energy is going on in
almost every Astrophysical object it's
x-ray astronomy through a sensitivity to
the sort of million degree temperatures
that are caused by hot cazness that
really record the violent events parlor
the universe we see a whole raft of
fascinating activity that a uniquely
x-ray field the last of the four Great
observatories the space infrared
telescope facility should complete our
new view of what is going on in the
universe its domain the very coldest
objects in the sky where stars are born
and planets begin to form
NASA's four Great observatories pushing
technology into the 21st century to
provide a new more complete picture of
our universe
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