Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 1976
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1976mercu...5....2b&link_type=abstract
Mercury, vol. 5, July-Aug. 1976, p. 2-5, 24.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Hubble Space Telescope, Nasa Programs, Spaceborne Astronomy, Chemical Analysis, Cosmology, Distance, Focal Plane Devices, Galactic Nuclei, Galactic Structure, Quasars, Red Shift, Stellar Evolution, Ultraviolet Spectroscopy, Universe, Visual Observation
Scientific paper
The potential capabilities of the Space Telescope, tentatively included as part of the Space Shuttle Program for launch in the 1980s, are discussed. The ST is conceived as a long-lived orbiting astronomical observatory containing a 2.4-meter Ritchey-Chretian telescope with a focal ratio of f/24. The ST is expected to have an angular resolution 10-20 times that of ground-based instruments; the associated Focal Plane Camera is designed so that a single exposure on the brighter part of a galaxy covering one orbital night of 30 minutes will reveal 26th magnitude stars. The high spatial resolution and faint limiting magnitude of the ST should lead to significant advances in the accuracy of distance determinations to galaxies, increase knowledge of chemical evolution and the morphology of distant galaxies, and may provide a solution to Hubble's classical problem of defining and tracing the expansion of the universe.
Burbidge Margaret
Field George
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