Ten Most Powerful Space Telescopes

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Telescope

Description

1.

James Webb Space Telescope

• Launched in - 2021.
• largest and the most powerful observatory.
• designed to conduct infrared astronomy.
• Agencies overlooking - NASA, ESA, CSA.

2.

Hubble Space Telescope

• Launched in - 1990.
• Discovering dark energy, observes the cosmos in ultraviolet, visible and near infrared, from the low Earth orbit.
• Operated by - NASA and ESA.

3.

Chandra X-ray observatory

• Launched in - 1999. NASA’s flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, detects X-ray emissions.
• The electrical power required to cooperate the Chandra spacecraft and instruments is very less (2KW).

4.

Spitzer Space Telescope

• Launched in - 2003, NASA’s, retired in 2020.
• Spitzer made the first exoplanet weather map of temperature variations over the surface of a gas exoplanet.

5.

Planck Space Observatory

• Launched in - 2009.
• ESA’s first mission to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the relic radiation from the Big Bang.

6.

Gaia

• Launched in - 2013.
• The telescope’s extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map will provide the data needed to tackle history of our galaxy.

7.

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

• Launched in - 2008.
• NASA’s telescope detects gamma rays, the most energetic form of light.
• to address questions revolving around “crushed stellar remnants like pulsars.

8.

TESS (Transiting Exoplant Survey Satellite)

• Launched in - 2018 as a follow-up to Kepler, NASA’s TESS is responsible for discovering exoplanets.

9.

Euclid Space Telescope

• ESA mission with critical contributions from NASA that aims to explore dark matter and dark energy.

10.

XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission)

• Launched in - 2023, NASA has partnering with JAXA on the XRISM mission to study celestial objects that emit X-rays.