Take stock of the six space telescopes, powerful capabilities, and let the universe "see everything at a glance"!
time:
2022-07-29 19:39
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Can you imagine how you get the gorgeous cosmic images you see?How are those distant galaxies and nebulae photographed by humans?When we look up at the starry sky on a clear night,we will see the stars all over the sky.These dense stars seem to be the universe we can see with the naked eye.However,this is not the case in fact.This is a simulation diagram of the Milky way.We live in this very ordinary galaxy,which is composed of a large number of stars.Almost all the stars we can see with the naked eye at night are only in this small circle,and everything outside this circle is silent for us.Although later great human ancestors invented telescopes,with the help of telescopes,we can observe more distant and clearer images of the universe.However,due to the disturbance of the earth's atmosphere and the influence of the earth's rotation,the earth's atmosphere will absorb and reflect most of the ultraviolet,X-ray and red light from space.
Online and other electromagnetic radiation, only visible light and some infrared and radio waves can pass through the atmosphere to reach the earth's surface. At the same time, our atmosphere is not a fixed system. Instead, it will flow and circulate continuously. Therefore, the impact of the universe photographed by our ground-based telescopes will inevitably be affected by atmospheric turbulence. At the same time, the rotation of the earth makes it difficult for our telescopes to focus on a certain area for exposure for a long time, which makes our telescopes on the earth very limited.
We still can't get the tendency of those distant galaxies. In modern times, with the rapid development of human space technology, mankind began to launch satellites, manned spaceflight and lunar landing, and it became possible for charcoal fire to launch telescopes into space with the help of rockets. Space telescopes in the air on the earth are not affected by atmospheric turbulence or the rotation of the earth, so they can have a very powerful ability to see the most real universe. Today, we will follow the camera into the six amazing space telescopes, the first, Hubble. If anyone is the most famous space telescope, it must be the Hubble telescope, which was launched in 1990. Although he is old now, he still runs 575km above the earth. During more than 30 years of Hubble's service, he photographed a large number of galaxies and nebulae from the deep space of the universe, which can be said to be the majority of galaxies and nebulae we see today.
The photos are all from Hubble. The Hubble telescope is an optical telescope dominated by visible light. It consists of a 2.4m wide main lens and a 0.3m sub lens, with a length of about 16m. When the light from a distant object reaches the Hubble, the Hubble will reflect the light from the main mirror to the nearby, and then reflect it through the central hole of the main mirror again. Finally, the image can be obtained after processing. However, Hubble also has its limitations. The wavelengths it can observe are extremely limited.
This makes most of the invisible light invisible to Harvard,and those objects blocked by dust cannot be seen by Hubble.
At the same time,since Hubble has been in service for more than 30 years,he has been repaired for many times.Now he is old and will retire.Not long ago,scientists in Lhasa launched a brand-new telescope,and Hubble also welcomed its successor,the Weber space telescope.Its mass is only 6.2 tons,about half that of Hubble.However,it is much stronger than Hubble.
It is composed of the main meridian,the fourth meridian and the third meridian.The diameter of the main mirror has reached an astonishing 6.5 meters.It is composed of 18 regular hexagonal adjustable lenses,and the area is more than five times that of Hubble.At the same time,Weber space telescope is also an infrared optical telescope.Compared with the visible light,the infrared penetration ability is stronger.It can penetrate the gas and dust in the universe,which enables Weber to see the celestial bodies hidden behind the dust and gas through the infrared band.At the same time,due to the influence of the expansion of the universe,the light emitted by some early galaxies and stars has been red shifted to the infrared band,and Harvard,which has the ability to observe small-band infrared,is powerless.This enables the Beibo space telescope,which has the ability to observe most infrared light bands in the near-infrared and mid infrared,to see more distant objects and galaxies than Hubble.According to the official team of the Weber space telescope,the observation capacity of the Weber space telescope is about
It is 100 times the size of Hubble,and this is the harmonic telescope.It was launched in 2009.It is four meters wide and 7.5 meters high.It is the largest far-infrared hat secret land launched by humans so far.The infrared lens it carries makes it extremely sensitive to long wavelength light and can sense most of the far-infrared light.At the same time,the Herschel telescope also carried about 2000 liters of refrigerant.
This makes it possible to reduce its own temperature,make the internal working temperature of the telescope close to absolute zero,and reduce the influence of the radiation of the instrument on the observation results as much as possible,so as to obtain the optimal observation data.Therefore,through the Herschel telescope,we can not only observe cosmic stars in a far infrared range,but also observe a large amount of dust and gas in the universe,explore the formation of stars outside the Milky way,and discover the secret of the origin of our universe.
However,in 2013,the Herschel telescope ended its life under the command of scientists because the refrigerant it carried was consumed.This is the Planck space telescope,which is suitable for the Herschel telescope to launch the first space telescope at the same time.The difference is that the Planck space telescope is a cosmic microwave background radiation telescope.Its main task is to measure the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background and determine the basic parameters of the universe,such as the curvature of the universe,the Hubble constant,that is,the density of cosmic particles.
In other words,the Planck space telescope is not designed to take pictures that our human eyes can see,but to explore the early radiation and dark energy of the universe.
The detection and study of the cosmic microwave background radiation and dark energy will help us understand how the universe was born and how the expansion of the universe will continue,thus revealing the deepest secret of our universe.This is the Spitzer Space Telescope.It is an infrared telescope launched in 2003.Its infrared detection sensitivity is extremely high.It can observe infrared radiation with a wavelength between three microns and 180 microns.However,infrared radiation in this wavelength band can hardly reach the surface of our earth.Therefore,the Spitzer Space Telescope can penetrate the dim celestial bodies covered by dust and gas and see the infinite mysteries behind them.Through the Spitzer Space Telescope,scientists can find some planets outside the solar system and explore the mystery of how exoplanets are formed.At the same time,it can also observe those extragalactic galaxies that Hubble cannot see,providing data for us to study the evolution of cosmic galaxies and celestial bodies.This is the Gaia space telescope.The space telescope built by ESA at a cost of 2 billion pounds was launched on December 19,2013.At that time,it was equipped with the most powerful imaging system in human history.Through the Gaia telescope,we can not only see the orbits of planets outside the solar system and nearby asteroids,but also search for some asteroids that may fly to the earth.
Of course, Gaia's most powerful power lies in its mapping ability, which can detect the position and motion information of more than 1 billion stars in the Milky way. Although a star only accounts for less than 1% of the total stars in the Milky way at this time, Gaia can still draw a 3D map of the Milky way through these data and high-precision cameras, so as to establish a high-resolution three-dimensional star map in the Milky way or even outside the Milky way, which helps us understand the structure of our Milky way and the appearance of the nearby universe where we live more clearly.
Of course,in addition to these six space telescopes,there are also some other space telescopes,such as the planet Hunter Tess telescope and the Infrared Sky Survey Telescope.They all act as the eyes of human civilization in space,replacing us to see a more clear and far-reaching universe.We can understand what kind of universe we live in through the data they send us.In the future,with the further development of human science and technology,we will have a deeper understanding of the universe.
It is even possible to truly unlock the secret of the birth of our universe in the future.
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