Hubble Juiced! ~ CU-Boulder to Design Space Telescope 1000 Times Sharper than Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope

 
Excerpt from utahpeoplespost.com




Researchers from the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary

Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder are currently working on

an improved version of space telescope that could provide space images

nearly 1,000 times sharper than those provided by long-running Hubble.

The new space telescope, dubbed the Aragoscope, is named after a

French astronomer called Francois Arago. The new telescope is

exclusively designed by the CU- Boulder scientists and involves a brand

new technology developed by the university. According to its designers,

the space optical instrument would be lighter, slimmer, and sharper than

Hubble.

Additionally, the Aragoscope will involve several independent pieces

that can be later assembled in space. So, the launching costs of these

smaller building blocks will be significantly reduced.

Traditionally, space telescopes have essentially been

monolithic pieces of glass like the Hubble Space Telescope. But the

heavier the space telescope, the more expensive the cost of the launch,”

said Anthony Harness, one of the researchers involved in the project and doctoral student at the CU-Boulder.

However, the new instrument will not replace Hubble, which is

scheduled to be shut down in 5 years time. Last year, Hubble had its

fifth and final maintenance service, and it was still in a pretty good

shape although one of its six gyroscopes couldn’t be stabilized. Despite

Hubble has been operating since 1990, NASA engineers hope that it will

make it to its 30th anniversary.

If Hubble remains operational, NASA plans to use it along with its

successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to be

launched in October 2018. Astronomers hope that the two space

telescopes, which use two different imaging methods, would help them

better understand the origins and early evolution of the universe.

But the UC-Boulder team claim that their new space telescope would

surpass Hubble with its enhanced capacity of spotting distant Earth-like

planets in the depths of a remote universe…

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Hubble Juiced! ~ CU-Boulder to Design Space Telescope 1000 Times Sharper than Hubble