April 24, 2015, will mark the date that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) adventure began and it was launched into low-Earth orbit. Taken into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, it has far exceeded its original lifespan and provided the world with incredible images of space. The HST was a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency.
To correspond with the 25th year of operation, NASA has planned a week of special events to celebrate the incredible accomplishments and awe inspiring photographs that the Hubble Space Telescope has produced. The telescope is considered by scientists to be one of the most fruitful scientific instruments ever created. It has provided more than 1 million observations, encoded more than 200 terabytes of information, and resulted in 15,000 publications of scientific nature.
A Week of Special Events
Starting on April 20, there will be a series of lectures about the Hubble Space Telescope adventure covering its history, creation, launch and contributions to space, entitled “Revealing the Universe,” that will be held at The John Wesley Powell Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Before the lectures that are open to the general public, attendees can view the full-size replica of the telescope at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington.
On the 22nd, another lecture entitled “Hubble Space Telescope: Exploding Stars and the Accelerating Universe,” will be held at the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater Museum in Washington, DC. It will be simultaneously webcast live if you can’t make it to Washington.
On April 23, on the other side of the US in Palmdale, California, a workshop for educators will take place, titled “Hubble Space Telescope 25th Anniversary Celebration,” and is hosted by the Office of Education through the Armstrong Flight Research Center at NASA. Educators will learn and celebrate the accomplishments made possible by the telescope and have the chance to tour and view information from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft, a modified Boeing 747.
The Big Day
On April 24, there are numerous events being held around the country. These will include a celebration at the NASA Wallops Visitor Center on Wallops Island, Virginia, where telescopes will be set up for the public to view the stars. The Cook Education Center Planetarium in Corsicana, Texas, will be offering two special Hubble-based shows, partly discussing astronomer Edwin Hubble, after whom the telescope was named.
The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be offering a view of eight high-definition, large-scale prints of some of the Hubble Space Telescope’s most iconic images displayed inside the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which just happens to be underneath a suspended, full-scale duplicate of the telescope. In addition, there will be a display of some of Hubble’s amazing discoveries through 200 breathtaking views of stars, the solar system, nebulae, galaxies, black holes, star cluster and quasars, all on a huge 13.5×24-foot, high-definition screen using a 20K DLP projector.
There is also an opportunity to view the launch of the next SpaceX Falcon 9 in Florida, along with a stargazing event afterward. In addition, there are events in Los Angeles; New York City; Bozeman, Montana; Washington, D.C.; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Chantilly, Virginia; and several events taking place online. See a list of events here. Join in the celebration from wherever you are and revel in the wonders of the universe as presented by the Hubble Space Telescope adventure.
