If all this sounds complicated, look at our glossary.

Q. Why are there more Servicing Missions for HST? I thought it was fixed in 1993?

A. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to be serviced on-orbit. The original plan was to visit the Telescope periodically to upgrade the instruments with newer technologies, as well as replace components that had worn out. Two Servicing Missions to HST have already occurred, each one upgrading the capabilities of the observatory, and maintaining its status as the premier astronomical telescope. Future Servicing Missions are planned for 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2005. For more detailed information please the web site of the HST Project Science Office.

Q. Who can use the WFC3?

A. Telescope time for any of the instruments is assigned by a panel of scientists who review proposals submitted for this time. The call for proposals is open to anyone. More information can be found here.

Q. Why are space-telescopes better than ground-based telescopes?

A. The advantage of ground-based telescopes is that they can be very large, however they still must look through the earth's atmosphere. Light traveling through the atmosphere gets refracted by pockets of air and turbulence. These pockets move about wildly and quickly, causing the image to shift around.

This is why the stars "twinkle" when we look at them. The atmosphere looks transparent to you and me, but at wavelengths beyond our visible region, both NUV and NIR, the atmosphere gets pretty opaque. Ground based telescopes can't get very far into these regions except at "windows" where radiation can get through.

Q. All of this sounds very interesting. I would like to work on this. How would I get in touch with you?

A. Go and visit our employment page.