HUBBLE: WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been taking stunning images of spacefor 20 years. It is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopesand its orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it totake extremely sharp images with almost no background light. As anobservatory in space, Hubble is one of the most successful scientificprojects of all time, both in terms of scientific output and its immediatepublic appeal. It has consistently delivered super-sharp images and clean,uncontaminated spectra over the entire near-infrared and ultravioletregions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's observations have openedup new scientific territory and have led to major breakthroughs inastrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of theUniverse. Hubble - Window on the Universe is a celebration of Hubble'sastonishing scientific and technical achievements told via 200 gloriousfull-colour images. This stunning oversized volume showcases all of themost spectacular - and most recent - images taken by the HST so far. Thechapters of the book are arranged thematically (The Solar System inPerspective, A New View of the Stars, Beyond the Milky Way, Exploring Spaceand Time) revealing the most recent views of a dizzying array of celestialobjects such as Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the birth and death of stars,the beautiful Butterfly Nebulae, Omega Centauri, Stephen's Quintet and themysteries of dark matter. Feature spreads chart the fascinating history ofthe Hubble project from its origins and launch in 1990, the discovery andemergency repair of a defective mirror, the impact of four subsequentservicing missions and finally, what the future holds in store for one ofthe most amazing scientific instruments ever made.