Orbiting nearly 650 kilometres above the Earth, the Hubble space
telescope has been our most powerful window on soaring star factories.
It has been instrumental in providing the existence of black holes and
has captured the cataclysmic end of stars far larger than our own sun.
Rocking a long-established theory about universe existence, Hubble
proved that the universe is expanding more and more quickly, which
could ultimately destroy our entire universe. The telescope also
provided the first stunningly-detailed images that illustrate how
embryonic stars are born from gas and dust clouds. First recorded by
Chinese astronomers in 1054 A.D., Hubble has tracked the debris from a
thousand year old supernova still moving into space at approximately 5
million kilometres an hour. When scientists focused Hubble on Jupiter,
they were able to watch in real time the devastating effect of a comet
hitting the massive planet. But the 12-ton telescope will soon be lost
forever as it slowly spirals towards Earth, and astronauts will travel
back into space to repair Hubble before the telescope is eventually
shut down and sent back to Earth.