Why is NASA shutting down the Hubble Space Telescope? (Beginner)

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Details: Friday, 13 February 2004 19:26; Answered by Brian Kent; Views: 49531

Why is NASA shutting down the Hubble Telescope? Or in other words, why aren't they going to send people up to the Hubble Telescope anymore?

NASA is not shutting down the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). However, there are no current plans to service Hubble in the future. Instead NASA is shifting its focus to Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is set to launch in 2018. HST has been one of the most productive astronomical instruments even built. It is used to study a wide range of phenomena ranging including the planets of our own solar system, gaseous nebulae and stars in the Galaxy, and distant quasars. JWST is set to expand on Hubble's legacy and improve our knowlegde base even further.

This page was last updated by Matt Hankins on July 18, 2015.

About the Author

Brian Kent

Brian Kent is a scientist with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He studies the dynamics of galaxies and works with 3D visualization and software for radio telescopes. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell in 2008.

Read about what he works on:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/index.html

or subscribe to his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/VisualizeAstronomy