Hubble Space Telescope: 30 years

Thirty years ago, on the 24 April 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope, a joint NASA-ESA mission. Its discoveries have resulted in, quite probably, the most significant advances in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. Expanding the frontiers of the visible Universe, it has provided the world's scientists with profound and unforeseen insights into the Universe, with hundreds of thousands of images of astounding beauty. Designed for refurbishment by astronauts, Hubble is a 2.4 m-diameter space telescope optimised to look deep into space with cameras that can see across the entire optical spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet. The Hubble Space Telescope, opening our eyes to the wonders of our ‘planetary’ backyard and beyond, has revolutionised modern astronomy by being an efficient tool for making new discoveries and changing the way research is done.