A picture of the Hubble Space Telescope taken from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1997 (Picture: NASA via Getty)

Happy birthday, Hubble!

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) celebrates 25 years of space exploration today (Friday, April 24).

Yes, for a quarter of a century Hubble, originally named The Large Space Telescope, as been our eye in the sky teaching us more about the universe.

Here’s 15 facts you never knew about the Hubble Space Telescope.


1. Colour me beautiful

The Pillars Of Creation – interstellar dust and gas – in the Eagle Nebula (Picture: Hubble)

When we think of Hubble, we think of stunning, colourful photos.

However, the digital images it sends back to Earth are, in fact, black and white.

Colour is added by experts to show the dispersion of chemical elements and highlight certain details.

2. Hubble was a baller

Mr Hubble (1889-1953) (Picture: Jon Brenneis/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty)

Edwin Powell Hubble, who the telescope was named after, played centre on the University Of Chicago basketball team.



He went on to study law at Oxford after winning the Rhodes Scholarship, where he fell in love with astronomy.

After studying the heavens he came up with the idea that the universe is expanding, which formed the basis of the big bang theory.

3. Nothing but a number?

Hubble’s picture of the barred spiral galaxy M83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel (Picture: Nasa/Reuters)

Before Hubble, it was generally thought the universe was between 10 and 20 billion years old.

Turns out it’s between 13 and 14 billion – about three times as old as Earth.

4. When I see an elephant fly

Hubble weighs more than 12,000kg (27,000lbs) – about the same as two adult African elephants.

5. Fast and furious

Comet ISON (Picture: Reuters/NASA)

Hubble moves round the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour.

If cars moved that fast, a coast-to-coast trip across the US would take 10 minutes.

6. Sky high costs

Microsoft recently paid the same amount for Minecraft (Picture: Mojang)

The telescope has cost £1.67billion to date.

7. Wishing on a star

A pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall and stars in the Carina Nebula, 7,500 light-years away (Picture: NASA/ESA)

Hubble has witnessed the births and deaths of stars, the evolution of galaxies and the existence of black holes.

It’s also been key in getting a closer look at alien planets outside our solar system.

8. If at first you don’t succeed…

Astronauts Steven L. Smith and John M. Grunsfeld service Hubble in 1999 (Picture: NASA/JSC via AP)

The telescope was launched into a 324 mile-high (552km) orbit around the Earth by the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990.

A few weeks after its launch it became clear its mirrors weren’t focussing properly and so, in 1993, a service mission costing more than £533million was carried out to correct it.

9. The universe’s baby pictures

Hubble captured the deepest view of the universe (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Hubble has captured the birth of planets, as well as letting us look back in time to see snapshots of the early universe.

10. All aboard

About the size of it (Picture: DX6XWN)

Hubble is 13.3 meters long – not much bigger than your average coach.

11. Lone satellite

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 (Picture: AFP/ESA/ NASA/C. Robert OíDell)

No astronauts live on Hubble – it’s unmanned and is controlled from Earth.

Rather than travel to distant galaxies it simply orbits the Earth, peering through space and time.

12. The dark side of the moon

This picture of a galaxy shows how the gravity of a supermassive black hole can generate immense power (Picture: AFP/NASA)

Hubble played a key role in the discovery of dark energy, a mysterious force speeding up the expansion of the universe.

13. Steady now

Pointing and locking Hubble onto distant celestial targets is like holding a laser light steady on a dime that is 200 miles away.

14. Having a blast

Hubble discovered that incredibly powerful explosions called gamma-ray bursts take place in far-distant galaxies when massive stars collapse.



15. Champagne supernovas in the sky

The Giant Mosiac of the Crab Nebula – a six light year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion (Picture: NASA, ESA, Allison Loll/Jeff Hester/AP)

When a massive star dies there is an explosion called a supernova.

Hubble has taken some amazing pics of these and helped us understand them better.

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