Advanced Telescopes That Give Us Different Perspectives Of Space

A look at 5 of the most advanced telescopes that have (or will) give us a different perspective of our view of the Universe.

While Galileo's small-looking glass was able to magnify objects about 20 to 30 times, these days, astronomers make use of monumental optical telescopes to collect space's visible light.

There are telescopes in a position to measure radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum - from gamma rays emitted by pulsars to long radio waves from the innermost regions of space. Telescopes have helped us perceive gravity and other elementary laws of the physical world. Telescopes have helped us perceive the light that radiates from the sun and other stars.

Today's very best advanced telescopes are astounding feats - and astronomers are continuously improving them.

Hubble Space Telescope

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides evidence of billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars like our sun. Hubble runs on old-school computing technology at two decades old, including a rather historical Intel 486 processor. Despite this, Hubble has imaged many iconic photographs such as the deep field, Crab Nebula and Eagle Nebula, and has grown to be the world's most renowned telescope. The final servicing mission has prolonged its life until 2020 when it is anticipated to be retired, and the James Webb Space Telescope will take over.

James Webb Space Telescope

The next advanced telescope to look at is the James Webb Space Telescope, which would be the successor to Hubble. After almost two decades in space, Hubble is, unfortunately, approaching the end of its life. JWST may not be the same - Hubble observes the visible light range, whilst James Webb's instruments focus mostly on infrared.

By looking at the longer infrared wavelengths, the James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of looking much closer to the start of time and seeking the unobserved formation of the first galaxies in addition to taking a look inside of dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming nowadays.

Arecibo Radio Telescope

The biggest operational radio telescope on the planet is the Arecibo telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Though radio telescopes have been used since the 1930s, Arecibo has been instrumental in astronomical discoveries since 1960. Developed and operated by Cornell University, radio telescopes are now valuable tools for looking at objects we cannot see with ordinary telescopes.

In 1989, the Arecibo telescope picked up an asteroid called 4769 Castalia. Asteroids had been discovered long before radio telescopes; however, this was the first time scientists had used technology to create a picture of what the asteroid looked like.

Arecibo has been instrumental in discovering exoplanets, detecting gravity waves, analysing the orbit of Mercury and a lot more.

Thirty Meter Telescope (Hawaii)

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is currently under development. It is a brand-new class of extraordinarily vast telescopes that will allow us to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity.

With its 30 m prime mirror diameter, TMT will be three times as broad, with nine times more area, than the world's biggest visible-light telescope. This will provide unheard-of resolution with TMT photographs greater than 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope. When operational, TMT will provide new observational opportunities in essentially each field of astronomy and astrophysics. Observing in wavelengths starting from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, this distinctive instrument will allow astronomers to deal with fundamental questions in astronomy ranging from working out star and planet formation to the historical past of galaxies and the development of large-scale structure in the universe.

Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (China)

Our final advanced telescope is the Chinese constructed Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), a monster. It has a dish 500 meters across, making this behemoth the world's biggest filled-in, single-dish radio telescope. With an area equivalent to 30 football fields, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier may simply float within the 500-meter FAST radio telescope's dish from bow to stern, with room to spare.

The FAST radio telescope is in southwestern China within the sparsely populated Guizhou Province. Like Arecibo, the radio telescope was constructed inside a natural depression within the limestone-dominated terrain. It uses mountainous karst features surrounding the observatory to block out radio interference.

FAST will probe the universe at radio wavelengths, attempting to find faint pulsars, mapping neutral hydrogen in faraway galaxies, and looking for signs of extra-terrestrial communications and intelligence. After three years of testing and commissioning, it was declared fully operational on 11 January 2020.

Future Advanced Telescopes

Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR)

LUVOIR is a beefed-up version of the Hubble Space Telescope. Like Hubble, this instrument would observe the universe in ultraviolet, infrared and visual wavelengths of light. With a diameter of around 15 meters (50 feet), LUVOIR's mirror would be more than six times wider than the one in Hubble, which means LUVOIR would see the universe with six times the resolution of Hubble. With 40 times the light-gathering power of the Hubble space telescope, LUVOIR would see fainter, smaller and more distant objects.

Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx)

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a concept for a mission to image planetary systems around Sun-like stars directly. HabEx will be sensitive to all types of planets; however, its main goal is, for the first time, to directly image Earth-like exoplanets and characterise their atmospheric content. By measuring the spectra of these planets, HabEx will search for signatures of habitability, such as water and be sensitive to gases in the atmosphere that are possibly indicative of biological activity, such as oxygen or ozone.