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Space telescopes

QUESTION: According to information that I have read there are four telescopes in space. They are called Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra but what is the other telescope called?


Answer:

It all depends whether you are just talking about OPTICAL telescopes – that is ones that detect visible light.

The three you mention are all still in orbit but a fourth launched by NASA, the Compton Gamma ray observatory was terminated in the year 2000 when its gyroscopes began to give problems. The scientists had to 'crash land' it in the Pacific or risk losing control of the satellite.

Other space observatories are:
SOHO is a solar observatory that is used for the study of the Sun's corona and magnetic environments.
SCISAT- 1 is a Canadian satellite which observes Earth's upper atmosphere X-Ray space
MOST was launched in 2003 for the Canadian Space Agency and it is the smallest space telescope in the world, being the size of a small chest or a very large suitcase.

 

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