hubble space telescope

English - English

Definition of hubble space telescope in English English dictionary

powerful telescope that was launched into space by the United States in 1990 and transmits magnified photographs of galaxies and objects in space

Most sophisticated optical observatory ever placed into orbit around Earth. Because it is above Earth's obscuring atmosphere, it can obtain images much brighter, clearer, and more detailed than ground-based telescopes can. Named for Edwin Hubble, it was built under NASA supervision and deployed on a 1990 space-shuttle mission. The reflector telescope's mirror optics gather light from celestial objects and direct it to an array of cameras and spectrographs (see spectroscopy). A defect in the primary mirror initially caused it to produce fuzzy images; in 1993 another shuttle mission corrected this and other problems. Subsequent missions to the HST have been for maintenance, repairs, and instrument upgrades

hst

Related Terms

Hubble Telescope

a very powerful telescope (=a piece of equipment for making distant objects look larger and closer) which is attached to a satellite in space, going around the Earth, and can see much further into space than telescopes on Earth

The Hubble Space Telescope

hst

The Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble

Hyphenation

Hub·ble space te·le·scope

Turkish pronunciation

hʌbıl speys telıskōp

Pronunciation

/ˈhəbəl ˈspās ˈteləˌskōp/ /ˈhʌbəl ˈspeɪs ˈtɛləˌskoʊp/