Page 37 - Life beyond the Karman

The Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Italy
The Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory is a public scientific research facility that is part of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). It is located at the top of the Arcetri hill in Florence, Italy. Its research efforts, created in collaboration with the University of Florence’s Department of Astronomy, extend from studies on our sun and the Solar System to star clusters in our galaxy; and from nearby galaxies to the limits of the observable universe.
Furthermore, active experimental groups at the Observatory are developing technologies for the construction of the largest optical and infrared telescopes, as well as improved optical instrumentation for visible, infrared, and radio waves.
Many additional telescopes are being designed around the world, while others are being built or are already functioning. Examples include the TMT International Observatory (30-metre Telescope) an optical-infrared telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), an optical telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, the Pulkovo Observatory in Russia, the Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory at the Duke of Zhou’s Shrine in China, the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory in Gauribidanur, India, and many others.
The Hubble Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a large, space-based observatory, which has revolutionised astronomy since its launch and deployment by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. It was named in honour of the trailblazing astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Scientists have used the Hubble to observe some of the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system.
Telescopes have a particular range of light that they can detect, which has allowed the Hubble to deliver stunning images of stars, galaxies, and other astronomical objects that have inspired people around the world and changed our understanding of the universe.
This telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations over the course of its lifetime. Over 19,000 peer-reviewed science papers have been published on its discoveries, and every current astronomy textbook includes contributions from the observatory. The telescope has tracked interstellar objects as they soared through our solar system, watched a comet collide with Jupiter, and discovered moons around Pluto.
It has found dusty disks and stellar nurseries throughout the Milky Way that may one day become fully fledged planetary systems and studied the atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars. The Hubble Telescope has peered back into our universe’s distant past to locations more than 13.4 billion light- years from Earth, capturing galaxies merging, probing the supermassive black holes that lurk in their depths, and helping
us better understand the history of the expanding universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope was the first astronomical observatory to be placed in orbit around Earth with the ability to record images in wavelengths of light spanning from ultraviolet to near-infrared.
It was launched on 24 April 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery and is located about 340 miles (547 km) above Earth’s surface, where it completes 15 orbits per day — approximately one every 95 minutes.
Its primary mirror collects the light from cosmic objects, from the solar system to the distant universe. The Hubble Telescope’s
LIFE BEYOND THE KÁRMÁN LINE - OUTER SPACE
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