Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

THE HUBBLE space telescope took its first photographs last week, even
though NASA has not completed focusing the telescope. To NASA’s surprise,
the photographs (above) were already clearer than images recorded by ground-based
telescopes.

Hubble’s images had a resolution of around 0.7 arc seconds compared
with the 1 arc second that is usual for ground-based telescopes. When NASA
has finished focusing Hubble, the telescope should be able to resolve some
objects to 0.007 arc seconds – comparable to distinguishing a human hair
a mile away.

In the meantime, NASA believes that it has found the cause of a vibration
that occurs when the telescope moves between day and night. The vibration,
at 0.1 hertz (once every 10 seconds), would have severely limited Hubble’s
performance.