It is 25 years since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit. During that time world leading space imaging company, e2v, has played a significant part. As well as being the eyes for NASA’s Hubble space telescope, e2v’s imaging sensor, has recently captured the anniversary ‘Celestial fireworks’ image.
“We are proud to have been part of the 25 year history of the Hubble Telescope. Supplying the imaging sensors for the Hubble upgrade in 2009 made the Hubble telescope more powerful than it had ever been and since then enabled extremely clear and detailed pictures of the universe over a very wide range of colours to be produced. The breathtaking ‘Celestial fireworks’ image released for the 25th Anniversary will go down in history and we are delighted and honoured to say our imaging sensor captured the picture.”
Matt Perkins, President of Space Imaging at e2v
e2v world leaders in space imaging
e2v’s expertise has resulted in 30 years involvement with some of the highest profile space science projects and has provided technology for more than 150 space missions including mapping the Milky Way and work for the Russian-led World Space Observatory.
In 2009 e2v’s imaging sensors were sent into space by NASA to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
“This is a prime example of how our e2v sensors are being used to accelerate discovery, by upgrading the performance of the Hubble Space Telescope’s vision to reach previously unexplored territory.”
Brian McAllister, General Manager of Space & Scientific Imaging at e2v
"We have been very pleased to work with the exceptionally talented folks at e2v to bring this technology to the Hubble Space Telescope. It will enable significant advances in large-format ultraviolet and visible observations to provide new discoveries about the nature of our universe."
Dr Randy Kimble, WFC3 Instrument Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
About the Hubble telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope first went into orbit in April 1990, and uses it position above the Earth’s atmosphere to give a view of the universe that can surpass that of ground-based telescopes and to discover galaxies beyond our own. Since the telescope’s launch it has captured more than 1.2 million observations of more than 38,000 cosmic objects.
Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system. It has been marked as the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope.
• Hubble has made more than 1.2 million observations since its mission began in 1990
• Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 12,800 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built
• The Hubble archive contains more than 100 Terabytes, and Hubble science data processing generates about 10 Terabytes of new archive data per year
Source [e2v] [Hubble]
