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Special Feature
What Comes Around, Goes Around:
Celebrating Hubble’s 100,000th Orbit
By NASA’s Amazing Space reporters
Sept. 2008
O
n august 11, 2008
at 7:42 a.m. Eastern time,
the Hubble Space Telescope
accomplished a major milestone by
completing its 100,000th orbit around
Earth. In honor of this milestone,
scientists used the telescope to capture
an image of a dazzling star-forming
region located near star cluster
NGC 2074.
Racking up
‘frequent flier’ miles
The telescope circles our planet about
once every 90 minutes. During its 18
years in orbit, Hubble has racked up
more than 2.5 billion miles (4 billion
km). This distance is equivalent to
traveling from Saturn to the Sun and
back. The average car only travels
about 160,000 miles in its lifetime.
This makes Hubble’s travels around
our planet equal to the lifetime of
about 15,000 cars.
Continued, page 2…
IMAGE: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio (STScI)
Bright star-forming region: This image was taken by the Hubble telescope to
commemorate its 100,000th orbit. The star cluster NGC 2074 (the bright grouping
of stars at upper left) is near the starbirth area.
Continued from page 1…
Hubble gets a tune-up
Hubble was the first space telescope
designed to be serviced in space.
Scientists believed that periodic
servicing missions would extend
Hubble’s operating life and keep the
observatory up-to-date. Astronauts
have already visited Hubble four
times, and another visit is scheduled
for October 2008. The visit, called
Servicing Mission 4, will increase the
telescope’s scientific power and keep
it operational until at least 2013.
Uncovering the secrets
of the universe
The servicing missions that keep
Hubble running smoothly have paid
off. The orbiting observatory has
made about 870,000 observations
resulting in more than 560,000
images of celestial objects. Hubble’s
contributions to astronomy include
providing clues to how galaxies evolve
over time and how stars form and
die. The telescope also has helped
astronomers determine a more exact
age for the universe.
Hubble’s location at 100,000th orbit
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
Milestone reached: This illustration shows the Hubble telescope’s location
when it began its 100,000th orbit. The telescope was directly over the equator
and heading north, flying above the Pacific Ocean. Hubble completes an orbit
around Earth about once every 90 minutes.
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Returning to Hubble for SM4
Servicing Mission 3B
payload commander,
John Grunsfeld, gives
the “thumbs-up” sign
during SM3B. He and
other experienced
crewmembers will return
to Hubble as part of the
Servicing Mission 4 team.
NASA
Hubble Space Telescope after SM3B
NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope sporting its new solar panels, installed
during Servicing Mission 3B, in 2002. The telescope was launched on April
24, 1990. It orbits 380 miles above Earth.
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SEE MORE Hubble images and read more
Star Witness news stories at Amazing Space,
NASA’s award-winning educational Web site for
K-12 students and teachers.
amazing-space.stsci.edu
www.nasa.gov