Great Observatories program facts for kids

Four Great Observatories

The Great Observatories program is four large, powerful space-based telescopes. They are a series of satellites placed by NASA. Each Space observatory has been important to astronomy.

• The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) looks at visible light and near-ultraviolet. It was launched in 1990. In 1997 ability to look at the near-infrared range was added. In 2009 there was a mission to service Hubble.

• The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) looks at gamma rays. It also looks at some hard x-rays as well. It was launched in 1991. It was deorbited in 2000.

• The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) looks at soft x-rays. It was launched in 1999.

• The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) looks at the infrared spectrum. It was launched in 2003.

Images for kids

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  Profiles of Gamma Ray bursts recorded by CGRO.

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  Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer composite image of the Crab Nebula (2009)

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  A labeled space image comparing views of a supernova remnant by three different Great observatories.

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  IXO was considered as a possible future X-ray observatory.

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  Calisto architecture for SAFIR was one concept for a future Far-infrared telescope

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  Hubble Space Telescope

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  Compton Gamma Ray Observatory illustration

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  Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, 1991

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  Chandra in the Space Shuttle bay on Earth

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  Spitzer on Earth being readied for launch

See also

In Spanish: Grandes Observatorios para niños