Science Objectives

The Hubble Telescope was designed to:

Investigate celestial bodies by studying their composition, physical characteristics, and dynamics.

Observe the formation of stars and galaxies, and study their formation and evolution.

Study the history and evolution of the universe.

Provide a long-term space-based research facility for optical astronomy.

The scientific objectives will be acheived by research into:

Galaxies and Clusters - Extragalactic distances, star clusters, interacting galaxies, cosmological tests.

Interstellar Medium - Dust and extinction, supernovae remnants, planetary nebulae, star formation, circumstellar nebulosity.

Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei - Quasi-stellar objects, Seyfert galaxies, BL Lac objects, radio galaxies, galacitc jets, gravitational lenses.

Stellar Astrophysics - Stellar Atmospheres and chemical composition, binary and variable stars, stellar photometry and polarimetry, parallaxes and proper motions of stars.

Stellar Populations - Color-magnitude and luminosity studies of star clusters, dynamics of clusters, structure of the galaxy and stellar surveys.

Solar System - Planetary features and atomspheres, satellites and rings, asteroids and comets, extra-solar planets, tests of general relativity.