Space observatory

A large number of observatories have been launched into orbit, and most of them have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the cosmos. Going into space can sometimes be a necessity, since the Earth's atmosphere is blocking much of the infrared, ultraviolet, and X-Rays radiation that come from astronomical objects.

Space observatories can generally be divided into two classes: missions which map the entire sky (surveys), and observatories which make observations of chosen parts of the sky.

Many space observatories have already completed their missions, while others are still operating. Satellites has been lauched by NASA, ESA and Japan space agency.

Table of contents

1 NASA's Great Observatories 2 Other notable space observatories 3 See also

NASA's Great Observatories

Satellites belonging to NASA's "Great Observatories" program:

• The Space Telescope (ST), now known as Hubble space telescope (HST) is the optical Great Observatory. It was launched to great acclaim and soon after discovered to be flawed. Its main mirror contained imperfections in its grinding that resulted from a certain production limitation being accounted for twice. It has now been fitted with the equivalent of spectacles to compensate for this.

• The Gamma ray Observatory (GRO), since renamed to The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, had to be disposed of after several years of productive life. Its gyroscopes began to fail and when it was down to its last gyroscope, the choice was to risk losing control or destroying the observatory. NASA ditched the bus-sized satellite into the Pacific Ocean in 2000.

• X-Rays are also represented in the Great Observatories, with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, renamed (from AXAF) in honor of the great Indian astrophysicist Chandrasekhar. This has been used to great effect to study distant galaxies and is still operational.

• The Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth observatory, originally called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF, launched on August 24, 2003.

Other notable space observatories

• IRAS, which performed an all-sky survey in infrared, as well as discovering disks of dust and gas around many nearby stars, such as Fomalhaut, Vega and Beta Pictoris. This ceased functioning in 1982 and has since re-entered the atmosphere.

• ISO (Infrared Space Observatory), an ESA (European Space Agency) mission, followed IRAS and carried out observations at infra-red wavelengths.

• IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer), an ESA/NASA/UK observatory that was launched in 1978 with a planned lifetime of 3 years. It was eventually switched off in 1996.

• SOHO is a solar observatory, it is operational and used for the study of the Sun's corona and magnetic environments. SOHO has revolutionised our knowledge of the Sun.

• Uhuru, the first (1970) X-Ray space observatory

• HEAO (High Energy Astronomy Observatories) 1 and 2, subsequent (1978) X-Ray space observatories

• Hipparcos was a satellite for measuring stellar parallax. Despite significant operational problems, it revised the Cepheid variable star distance scale to great accuracy and has been invaluable for all branches of observational astronomy by furnishing scientists with extremely accurate "standard candles" for measuring distances.