Why is the Hubble Space Telescope in space?
Why can't the Hubble Telescope observe from earth as opposed to space as most other telescopes do?
The reason for the Hubble Space telescope being in space is that from the Earth the telescopes have to look throught the astmosphere. This is moving around a lot and so causes the images to be somewhat distorted (you could compare it to look at stuff through ripply water). In space there is no atmopshere so you can get much more detail in the images. However it is difficult and very expensive to run telescopes in space, and ground telescopes can also be larger so they have some advantages too.
Related questions:
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a telescope in space?
- How is it that we see farther out in space (farther back in time) than in the past?
- Why is NASA shutting down the Hubble Space Telescope?
- Why are telescopes located in remote places?
More questions about Telescopes: Previous | Next
More questions about Space Exploration and Astronauts: Previous | Next
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