SATLASOptical · Space
Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
OperatingOperating since 24 April 1990.
Operating in one-gyroscope mode since June 2024, which lowers scheduling efficiency and rules out tracking Solar System targets closer than Mars.
A 2.4 m Ritchey–Chrétien telescope in low Earth orbit, resolving about 0.05″ in the optical. WFC3 and ACS image from the near-ultraviolet to 1.7 µm; COS and STIS provide the only large-aperture ultraviolet spectroscopy available, down to 115 nm. Three and a half decades of data underpin work from the distance ladder and H₀ to exoplanet atmospheres and the intergalactic medium.
- Operator
- NASA, ESA
- Orbit
- Low Earth orbit
- Aperture
- 2.4 m mirror
- Passband
- 115 nm – 1.7 µm
- Launch
- 24 April 1990
Passband
Sky coverage
Pointed observationspointed observationObserving chosen targets, usually selected by peer review in annual proposal cycles, as opposed to surveying the sky systematically. Gives depth on few objects; the total area observed stays small. selected in annual peer-reviewed cycles. Fields are arcminutes across (the WFC3/UVIS field is 162″ on a side), so the total area imaged is small but very deep in places, such as the Ultra Deep Field.
Archives
Its processing levels are mapped against other missions on the data levels page.
Key papers
Instrument · 2008
Wide Field Camera 3: a powerful new imager for the Hubble Space Telescope (opens in a new tab)Kimble et al., Proc. SPIE 7010, 70101E
The design of the UVIS and IR channels, installed in Servicing Mission 4 in 2009.
Instrument · 2005
The Photometric Performance and Calibration of the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (opens in a new tab)Sirianni et al., PASP 117, 1049
Throughputs, zero points and the photometric calibration of the WFC and HRC channels.
Instrument · 2012
The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (opens in a new tab)Green et al., ApJ 744, 60
The far-ultraviolet spectrograph installed in 2009, built for faint point sources such as background quasars.
Instrument · 1998
The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph Design (opens in a new tab)Woodgate et al., PASP 110, 1183
Pipeline · 2002
Drizzle: A Method for the Linear Reconstruction of Undersampled Images (opens in a new tab)Fruchter & Hook, PASP 114, 144
The algorithm behind the drizzled (drz, drc) images that MAST serves for every imaging instrument.
Data · 2016
Version 1 of the Hubble Source Catalog (opens in a new tab)Whitmore et al., AJ 151, 134
Hubble Legacy Archive source lists matched into one catalogue of about 80 million detections of 30 million objects.
Data · 2006
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field (opens in a new tab)Beckwith et al., AJ 132, 1729
Data · 2011
CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey — The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products, and Mosaics (opens in a new tab)Koekemoer et al., ApJS 197, 36
The WFC3/IR and ACS mosaics of the five CANDELS fields, a standard deep-field data set.
Result · 2001
Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant (opens in a new tab)Freedman et al., ApJ 553, 47
H₀ = 72 ± 8 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ from Cepheid distances, the Key Project's final value.
Result · 2022
A Comprehensive Measurement of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant with 1 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ Uncertainty from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SH0ES Team (opens in a new tab)Riess et al., ApJL 934, L7
Cepheids in the hosts of 42 Type Ia supernovae, from over 1,000 HST orbits; the local side of the Hubble tension.
Result · 2002
Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere (opens in a new tab)Charbonneau et al., ApJ 568, 377
Sodium absorption in HD 209458b's transmission spectrum with STIS.
Sources
Verified 15 November 2026.
- Hubble at NASA (opens in a new tab)
- HST Primer, optical performance (opens in a new tab)
- WFC3 Instrument Handbook, UVIS field geometry (opens in a new tab)
- ESA/Hubble instruments (opens in a new tab)
- NASA on one-gyro mode (opens in a new tab)
Other optical facilities: SDSS, Kepler / K2, Gaia, ZTF, TESS, CHEOPS, DESI, Pandora