Space Tools

What is a spectrometer?
How do we get information from spacecraft?
When was the first radio telescope built?
Where is the largest optical telescope in the world?
When did the first robot rover go to Mars?

What is a space probe?
How far can the Hubble Space Telescope see?
Why do we put telescopes in space?
How fast does the Space Station travel?
What is the International Space Station?

How far can the Hubble Space Telescope see?

The Hubble Space Telescope can see out to a distance of several billions of light-years. A light-year is the distance that light travels in 1 year. Since light has a speed of 186,000 miles per second (light can travel about 7 times around the entire earth in 1 second!), light travels about 5,865,696,000,000 miles in just one year. You can attach 9 more zeros to the end of this to get 1 billion light-years and another one for 10 billion light-years. The farthest that Hubble has seen so far is about 10-15 billion light-years away. The farthest area looked at is called the Hubble Deep Field.