Stars are born in giant gas clouds page 14 and other facts about the creation of stars The sun is a pretty average star page 16 and other facts about the sun Stars have starquakes like our earthquakes page 18 and other facts about starquakes A black hole can tear apart a star page 20 and other facts about black holes
You are made of stardust page 22 and other facts about elements The universe isn't making many new stars page 24 and other facts about the birth rate of stars Even More Facts page 26 Glossary page 28 Further Information page 31 Index page 32
FACT 1 THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE SEES STARS BEING BORN The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 from the Discovery space shuttle It travels around Earth taking incredible pictures of very very far off objects and events How far The Hubble Telescope can see objects 13 billion light years away A light year is the distance that light travels in one year that's 5.9 trillion miles 9.5 trillion km which is like looping around Earth 237 million times Now multiply that by 13 billion it's almost impossible to imagine how far that distance really is Quick look I think a star is being born Star birth as seen by Hubble THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE IS POWERED ENTIRELY BY THE SUN
The Hubble Space Telescope circling Earth Seeing clearly Telescopes on Earth have to look through the clouds and gases of our planet's atmosphere to see out into space This seriously limits how far they can see In its position around 340 miles 547 km above Earth Hubble can see straight out into space without this hazy atmosphere getting in the way This means it can see incredibly faint objects very far off into space Built for accuracy In order to take pictures of such faint distant objects Hubble has to be incredibly accurate It is built to keep very steady which helps it find an object and take a picture of exactly where it is The amount to which it ever wavers its view to either side of an object is about the same as the width of a human hair seen from one mile 1.6 km away FACT 2 The telescope is named after Edwin Hubble who discovered that there are other galaxies beyond our own Milky Way Perfect mirrors The Hubble Telescope uses a system of perfectly lined up mirrors to see deep into space These mirrors are very precisely made to ensure that they can see things as accurately as possible Hubble's main mirror is so finely polished that if you scaled it up to be as wide as Earth there wouldn't be any bumps more than around 6 inches 15 cm tall Edwin Hubble was a talented athlete and basketball coach as well as a famous astronomer
