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LONDON: It is 25 years since the launch of the Hubble telescope. Its photographs have shown us the beauty and edge of the universe, say John Hearne.
Hubble had the potential to answer some of the biggest questions in science — such as the age of the universe, its rate of expansion, how stars are formed and how they die — but it was images beamed back from its orbit, 340 miles above the Earth, that caught everyone by surprise.
It began with the collision of comet Shoemaker Levy 9, into Jupiter, in July, 1994. Hubble’s observations of the event shed new light on Jupiter’s atmospheric winds, its immense magnetic field, the mysterious dark debris from the impacts, and the composition of the doomed comet.
