March/April 1998

Designs for the Next Hubble

by Doug Addison

Astronomers using Hubble Space Telescope often produce the most dramatic results when they look into the distant past to a time when our universe was young. Looking into the near future, however, many of the same astronomers are looking at Hubble itself and the day when it makes its last observation, possibly within the next ten years or so.

Fortunately, plans are already on the drawing board for Hubble's replacement. In fact, NASA is designing two successors to Hubble that will be launched within a decade. The new space telescopes will help astronomers peer farther into the corners of the universe, probe dense clouds where new stars are born, and examine nearby stars where Earth-like planets may exist.

The Next Generation Space Telescope, by right of its acronym, is NASA's official heir-apparent to Hubble Space Telescope, though it will bear little resemblance to its predecessor. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is leading the effort to develop and launch NGST, which will carry a 6- to 8-meter mirror into space -- compared with Hubble's 2.1-meter mirror -- and will be optimized for near- to mid-infrared observations. It's scheduled to launch in 2007.

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