Celebrating 25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope
For more than two decades, telescope has brought the far reaches of the universe to Earth
25 YEARS OF HUBBLE The Hubble Space Telescope, one of humankind's sharpest eyes to ever peer into the universe, continues to explore cosmological frontiers that were undreamt of when it launched 25 years ago.
NASA
On a chilly Saturday evening in March, unfazed by more than 6 inches of new snow, hundreds of people crowded into Shriver Hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to hear the East Coast premiere of “Cosmic Dust,” an orchestral piece set to images of deep space. A trumpet fanfare conveyed the immense power of an exploding star; a cascade from the violins accompanied the flights of comets. As the symphony played, images of galaxies and nebulae scrolled by on a big screen.
Not many telescopes get a concert in their honor. But the Hubble Space Telescope is not just any telescope.
“Hubble is stargazing on steroids,” says Russell Steinberg, the Los Angeles-based composer who wrote “Cosmic Dust.” From its vantage point high above the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble is one of the sharpest eyes ever to peer out at the universe.
