At a cost of $10 billion I still think the Hubble is one of the best investments that high science has offered us. The images it produces have to be the most fascinating and valuable pieces of data humanity has ever produced.
Hubble's successor, the James Webb, is scheduled to launch in a couple of years. It will orbit the Sun rather than the Earth (at the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange point) with a mirror more than twice the diameter of Hubble's. The images that it will produce are expected to be even more stunning than Hubble's. These are truly great times we're living in.
I knew little about Larange points[0] or the James Webb[1] before reading your comment and spending 10 minutes on Wikipedia. The L2 is a stable orbit with the Earth between the L2 point and the sun; the Webb is a telescope that seems twice as large as the Hubble scheduled for launch in 2018. Fascinating stuff!
As noted in the Webb article:
>The JWST will operate near the Earth-Sun L2 (Lagrange) point, approximately 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) beyond the Earth. Objects near this point can orbit the Sun in synchrony with the Earth, allowing the telescope to remain at a roughly constant distance and use a single sunshield to block heat and light from the Sun and Earth. This will keep the temperature of the spacecraft below 50 K (−220 °C; −370 °F), necessary for infrared observations.
There's a great picture[2] on Wikipedia comparing sizes of major telescopes.
There was a lot of "great times" if we are talking about tech development. It was also a great time to board a locomotive at the beginning of the XIX century. Then, I think a great time not too abstract would be to actually go to Mars more than looking at pictures.
NASA's Instagram post has a surprising amount of detail in the photo description that helped orient me to the features in the photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmwqJNIaLU/
[+] [-] brianpgordon|9 years ago|reply
Hubble's successor, the James Webb, is scheduled to launch in a couple of years. It will orbit the Sun rather than the Earth (at the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange point) with a mirror more than twice the diameter of Hubble's. The images that it will produce are expected to be even more stunning than Hubble's. These are truly great times we're living in.
[+] [-] mamurphy|9 years ago|reply
As noted in the Webb article:
>The JWST will operate near the Earth-Sun L2 (Lagrange) point, approximately 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) beyond the Earth. Objects near this point can orbit the Sun in synchrony with the Earth, allowing the telescope to remain at a roughly constant distance and use a single sunshield to block heat and light from the Sun and Earth. This will keep the temperature of the spacecraft below 50 K (−220 °C; −370 °F), necessary for infrared observations.
There's a great picture[2] on Wikipedia comparing sizes of major telescopes.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_optical_telesc...
[+] [-] Ileca|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] photonwins|9 years ago|reply
http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-mission/picture...
[+] [-] piyush_soni|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] solipsism|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Yuioup|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nitrogen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mholt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackbravo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway_exer|9 years ago|reply