Our Millennial Space Telescope Hasn’t Burned Out Yet

At this moment, about a million miles from Earth, the world’s most powerful space telescope is making tiny adjustments to its mirrors, aligning the shiny tiles just so. Soon, the starlight will come into focus for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the observatory will begin to make sense of it. Thousands of astronomers are simply buzzing, eager to see the marvels that Webb might pick out of the darkness.

All the anticipation surrounding this shiny new space telescope made me wonder: How’s Hubble doing?

You know, Hubble—that other space telescope, and arguably the most well-known one. For nearly 32 years, Hubble has been perched on high, peering into space, delivering dazzling sights, and making new discoveries. If you’ve ever seen a really good picture of a galaxy, all sparkly and ethereal, it probably came from Hubble.

Space folks at NASA and other space agencies have been keen to point out that