Space TelescopesPeering at the Universe from Above

Space TelescopesNASA’s Active SatellitesCoolScienceArt.com

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IntroductionSince the middle of the 20th century,

More than 80 telescopes have been launched into space.

Today, there are more than 20 active space telescopes orbiting the Earth and Sun. 

Not just from NASA, but from the national space agencies of the European union, and more than a dozen other countries.

NASA’s Active SatellitesThis presentation is part 2 of a 3-part series studying currently active space telescopes.

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What Space Telescopes DoThe visible light we see is just a small portion of all light. Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma-rays are all wavelengths of light, emitted as photons, with different levels of energy. The only thing that makes visible light “special”, is that our eyes are designed to see it.

When an energetic event in space occurs, such as a supernova explosion, it emits light of all wavelengths, from radio to gamma. Events and objects, from cooling planetary nebula glowing in the infrared, to neutron stars emitting X-rays as they consume matter, to high energy Gamma-rays from the explosive deaths of supermassive stars, all emit light concentrated in different areas of the spectrum of light.

Because of this, when we look into space with telescopes designed to see these different types of light, we can see different details and discover more information about the same phenomenon.

Images from 4 telescopes

Combined, they form

Cosmic RaysCosmic rays are a special case. In addition to light (photons), supernovas and some highly energetic events in space sometimes rip atoms apart and send the individual fragments flying through space at significant fractions of the speed of light.

These are called cosmic rays, and while they are they are a form of radiation, they do not fit on the electromagnetic spectrum of radio waves, visible light, X-rays, etc. They are made up primarily of single protons (hydrogen atoms), alpha particles (helium atoms), lone electrons or the nucleus’ of heavier elements.

Cosmic rays are observed with particle accelerators, and are studied to better understand fundamental science and the nature of space, rather than looking at specific objects, as with traditional telescopes.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

In operation for more than 26 years, Hubble is perhaps the most famous, expensive, and one of the most significant space telescopes ever created.

It is responsible for many advancements in astronomy, including a much more accurate estimate on the age of the Universe, the first solid evidence of planets outside our solar system, and the existence of a 100 kilometer deep liquid saltwater ocean under the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede.

Hubble Telescope

Launched: April 24 1990

Planned Program end: June 2021

Spectrum it can see: Visible, and Ultraviolet

Where is it: Low-Earth orbit, ~600 km overhead

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $10.5 Billion

Cost equivalent:

1 Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier (10 are planned)

Click on pictures to see larger versions

Click here to read more about Hubble

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO)

One of the most successful space telescopes in history, Chandra has greatly advanced our understanding of how matter interacts with ultra dense and energetic objects in the Universe.

Since X-rays are almost all blocked by our atmosphere, X-ray telescopes show us things we just cannot see from the ground. Chandra has given us a great deal of information on high-energy reactions, from supernova star explosions, to matter falling into neutron stars and black holes, to intensely hot stellar gas surrounding the core of galaxies, super-heated by a hundred million suns and the incredible black holes at their centers, which are often billions of times more massive than our sun.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Launched: Jul 23 1999

Planned Program end: 2019

Spectrum it can see: X-Ray

Where is it: Highly-elliptical Earth orbit

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $3.5 Billion

Cost equivalent:

The amount added to the US national debt every 2.8 days.

Click on pictures to see larger versions

Click here to read more about Chandra

The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)

Infrared astrophotography is particularly well suited for analyzing cooler events, such as the glows of stellar nurseries, older planetary nebulas, and searching for “hot planets”. 

Spitzer’s clever location, orbiting the Earth from several tens of millions of km behind the Earth, instead of orbiting the Earth itself, allows it to see with very little interference. Most things emit infrared light at normal Earth temperatures – if you could see in infrared, nearly everything around you would be glowing, even at night time; this would partially blind Spitzer acting like a floodlight behind the telescope.

Spitzer has given us our first direct look at the light from a planet outside of our solar system, has peered at the first stars to form – as early as 100 million years after the Big Bang, and has used its incredibly precise eye to measure the changing temperature of a planet 64 light years from our solar system, giving us the first map of any kind of an extrasolar planet.

Spitzer Space Telescope

Launched: Aug 25 2003

Planned Program end: October 2018

Spectrum it can see: Infrared

Where is it: Solar orbit, trailing the Earth

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $1 Billion

Cost equivalent:

The wedding cost of Russian oil refinery RussNeft’s owner, Mikhail Gutseriev’s son

Click on picture to see larger versions

Click here to read more about Spitzer

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO)(honourable mention)

Although it lasted longer than its original 5 year minimum to be considered a mission success, Compton’s 1991 – 2000 lifespan was far shorter than its remaining three counterparts in the NASA Great Observatory programs (Hubble, Chandra & Spitzer).

Compton was designed to observe the most energetic events in our Universe, such as Supernova explosions and greedy super-massive black holes eating their lunches of entire solar systems worth of matter. It observed what may be a cloud of antimatter orbiting our own Milky Way’s central super-massive black hole, and discovered that gamma ray bursts occur within clouds on Earth during lightning storms.

After one of its three gyroscopes malfunctioned, NASA decided to deorbit the still functioning Compton while they could safely do so, leading it to crash harmlessly into the Pacific ocean in the year 2000.

Click here to read more about Compton

Honourable mention:Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

Launched: April 5 1991

Planned Program end: June 2000

Spectrum it can see: Gamma rays

Where is it: Pacific Ocean; was low-Earth orbit

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $800 million

Cost equivalent:

“Eclipse”, Russian businessman Roman Abramovich’s 5th yacht

Swift Gamma Ray Burst ExplorerA unique aspect of Swift, is its onboard “Burst Alert Telescope” – designed to continuously scan the sky for GRBs.  When it finds one, it swiftly swivels its other two cameras (an X-ray, and an Ultraviolet & Optical telescope) to focus on the object, so that it can observe simultaneously in the gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavebands.

Swift has discovered some of the oldest, farthest, and most powerful Gamma-ray bursts, stretching back to major explosions which took place just 600 million years after the big bang. 

Perhaps its most significant discovery, was a chance sighting of an X-ray burst in a galaxy it was already watching, indicating the very early stages of a supernova explosion – something which happens only once or twice in a human lifetime in a typical galaxy. This lucky timing allowed scientists to point Hubble, Chandra, and several major ground-based satellites to this event to get our most complete observation of a supernova from its initial stages.

Click here to read more about Swift

Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer

Launched: November 20 2004

Planned Program end: Ongoing

Spectrum it can see: Gamma, X-ray, Ultraviolet, Visible

Where is it: Low-Earth orbit: ~600 km overhead

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $250 million

Cost equivalent:

“The cost of trials, conviction, holding, & carrying out sentencing of the

average Californian death penalty

Fermi Gamma-ray Space TelescopeWith more modern equipment than Compton, and more sophisticated, expensive gear than Swift, Fermi is a next generation gamma ray telescope continuing the exploration of the Universe in this high energy spectrum.

Gamma-ray telescopes are particularly important for scientific understanding of the fundamental processes of physics, through the exploration of the highest-energy events since the Big Bang.

Among Fermie’s discoveries, are enormous bubbles of X-ray and Gamma-rays over and under the center of our Milky Way galaxy, further exploration of GRBs in thunderclouds here on Earth, and a ridiculously large explosion in the long past, 9,000 times larger than a typical supernova explosion.

Click here to read more about Fermi

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Launched: June 11 2008

Planned Program end: August 2018

Spectrum it can see: Gamma, X-ray, Ultraviolet, Visible

Where is it: Low-Earth orbit: ~600 km overhead

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $900 million

Cost equivalent:

The amount Donald Trump declared as business losses for 1995

Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)The IBEX is a small, cheap, special purpose satellite with

a rather unique mission.  It’s designed to study the boundary of where the sun’s solar winds meet and interact with the background stellar winds of other stars in our galaxy and the Universe – essentially, the boundary between our solar system, and the rest of space.

For its low cost, IBEX has been an extremely valuable scientific tool.  More than 100 scientific papers were published on the data it returned in just the first 4 years, and the incredibly efficient satellite has enough fuel to operate for 40 years!

Click here to read more about IBEX

Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)

Launched: Oct 19 2008

Planned Program end: Ongoing

Spectrum it can see: Cosmic rays

Where is it: Highly elliptical Earth orbit

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $100 million

Cost equivalent:

The bonus Google offered their Vice President of display advertising products to keep his job instead of going to Twitter

KeplerKepler is a planet-hunter.  It has perhaps the simplest configuration of any space telescope, with only a single instrument – a photometer – to measure the

When a planet passes in front of its star (from our perspective), some of the star’s light is blocked, dimming it for the observer.  This dimming is extremely slight – from the point of view of someone outside our solar system, the Earth passing in front of our sun would see our star dim by about 0.01%. 

Kepler has been a resounding success, discovering more than 2/3 of the ~3,500 extrasolar planets we’ve discovered from all methods combined, and has been able to estimate the total number of potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way at 100 million!

Click here to read more about Kepler

Kepler

Launched: Mar 6 2009

Planned Program end: 2019, though significantly crippled

Spectrum it can see: Visible

Where is it: Solar orbit, trailing the Earth

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $700 million

Cost equivalent:

1/3 of a B-2 Spirit bomber (the US military has 21 of them)

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

Wise is a particularly important space telescope, charged with looking for small cool objects in our own solar system, nearby brown dwarf stars (celestial objects significantly larger than Jupiter, but not large enough to ignite into a “real star” powering itself by fusing hydrogen), and distant bright sources of infrared light.

Along with some interesting discoveries, including a brown dwarf star just 20 light years from Earth, and spotting the brightest galaxy in the Universe (emitting as much light as 300 trillion suns!), and literally millions of black holes, WISE has catalogued more than 100,000 new solar system objects, including 250 NEOs (near-Earth objects), 49 of which pose a potentially significant hazard to Earth.

Click here to read more about WISE

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

Launched: Dec 14 2009

Planned Program end: ongoing

Spectrum it can see: Infrared

Where is it: Low-Earth orbit; ~500 km overhead

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $330 million

Cost equivalent:

Annual American expenditure of Halloween costumes for their pets

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 02 (AMS-02)

Unlike the previous telescopes, AMS-02 does not detect wavelengths of light, but highly energetic (fast) particles produced outside of our solar system from neutron stars, black holes, supernovas and possibly from matter-antimatter reactions.

AMS-02 is mounted on to the International Space Station, and is designed to look for natural antimatter, dark matter, strangelets (matter made from strange quarks), and to take long term surveys of the radiation environment of space outside the Earth’s protective magnetosphere. This data will be invaluable in planning manned missions to Mars, deep space, and beyond.

Click here to read more about AMS-02

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 02 (AMS-02)

Launched: May 16 2011

Planned Program end: 2020

Spectrum it can see: Cosmic rays

Where is it: Bolted to the International Space Station

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $1.5 Billion

Cost equivalent:

1 month of Facebook’s revenue

Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)

NuSTAR is NASA’s versatile next generation X-Ray telescope. Although it is not a major NASA project like the Chandra X-ray Observatory, it is far newer, using more advanced technology, and can detect X-rays at energies beyond those of Chandra, and the more recent XMM-Newton, an ESA X-ray telescope.

Its primary mission goals are to survey supermassive black holes and the relativistic jets of matter they emit, and to analyze the remnants of recent supernovas to better understand how stars explode, and how they form heavy elements.

NuSTAR has called into question some of our fundamental understandings of how super-massive stars end their lives, and has discovered black holes which spin at near the speed of light.

Click here to read more about NuSTAR

Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array(NuSTAR)

Launched: Jun 13 2012

Planned Program end: 2018

Spectrum it can see: X-ray

Where is it: Low-Earth orbit; ~600 km overhead

Total cost estimate (as of 2016): $165 million

Cost equivalent:

1.2 inches of a Subway footlong sandwich for every American

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