Hubble space telescope - Exam
  • 1. When was the Hubble Space Telescope launched?
A) 1995
B) 1990
C) 2000
D) 1985
  • 2. Which space agency launched the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) Roscosmos
B) ESA
C) NASA
D) ISRO
  • 3. What type of telescope is the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) Radio
B) Reflecting
C) Refracting
D) Infrared
  • 4. Which component of the Hubble telescope captures light and directs it to the instruments?
A) Control module
B) Primary mirror
C) Solar panels
D) Antennas
  • 5. What was the main issue with Hubble's primary mirror after its launch?
A) Spherical aberration
B) Lost contact with Earth
C) Power failure
D) Cracks in the mirror
  • 6. Where is the Hubble Space Telescope's control center located?
A) Kennedy Space Center
B) Ames Research Center
C) Goddard Space Flight Center
D) Johnson Space Center
  • 7. How large is the primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) 1 meter
B) 5 meters
C) 2.4 meters
D) 3 meters
  • 8. Who is the telescope named after?
A) Edwin Hubble
B) Galileo Galilei
C) Isaac Newton
D) Albert Einstein
  • 9. What technology was used to correct the Hubble Space Telescope's fuzzy vision?
A) Digital imaging
B) X-ray optics
C) Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR)
D) Laser technology
  • 10. Which regions of the electromagnetic spectrum does Hubble observe in?
A) Infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray
B) Microwave and radio waves
C) Visible light only
D) Ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared
  • 11. Which mission corrected the spherical aberration in Hubble's optics?
A) STS-135 in 2011
B) STS-125 in 2009
C) STS-61 in 1993
D) STS-31 in 1990
  • 12. How many Space Shuttle missions were conducted to repair and upgrade Hubble?
A) Seven
B) Three
C) Six
D) Five
  • 13. Who was the astronomer that published a paper in 1946 discussing the advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory?
A) Edwin Hubble
B) Hermann Oberth
C) Nancy Grace Roman
D) Lyman Spitzer
  • 14. What was one of the main advantages of a space-based observatory over ground-based telescopes, according to Lyman Spitzer?
A) Limitations on resolution due to atmospheric turbulence are eliminated.
B) Space telescopes cannot observe infrared and ultraviolet light.
C) Ground-based telescopes have better angular resolution.
D) Space telescopes can observe only visible light.
  • 15. What was the first space mission to obtain an ultraviolet spectrum of the Sun?
A) 1962
B) 1946
C) 1983
D) 1975
  • 16. Who is known as the 'Mother of Hubble' for her pivotal role in its development?
A) Hermann Oberth
B) Nancy Grace Roman
C) Edwin Hubble
D) Lyman Spitzer
  • 17. What was the original planned launch year for the Large Space Telescope (LST) before it became known as Hubble?
A) 1990
B) 2001
C) 1979
D) 1983
  • 18. What was the main scientific contribution of Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2)?
A) X-ray imaging of the Moon.
B) Gamma-ray observations of black holes.
C) Ultraviolet observations of stars and galaxies from 1968 to 1972.
D) Microwave studies of cosmic microwave background radiation.
  • 19. What program's success encouraged the astronomical community to pursue a Large Space Telescope (LST) as a major goal?
A) The LST program
B) The ESA program
C) The OAO program
D) The Hubble program
  • 20. In which year did NASA establish committees to plan the engineering and scientific goals of the space telescope project?
A) 1983
B) 1970
C) 1974
D) 1977
  • 21. What was the final approved budget by Congress in 1978 for the Hubble project?
A) $5 million
B) $36 million
C) $100 million
D) No funding was approved.
  • 22. What year did NASA aim to launch the Large Space Telescope (LST)?
A) 1974
B) 1983
C) 1990
D) 1978
  • 23. What significant scientific discovery is Edwin Hubble known for confirming?
A) The universe is expanding.
B) The existence of black holes.
C) The theory of relativity.
D) The structure of DNA.
  • 24. What percentage of observing time was guaranteed to European astronomers on Hubble?
A) 10%
B) 25%
C) At least 15%
D) 50%
  • 25. Which company was commissioned to design and build the optical telescope assembly (OTA) for Hubble?
A) Perkin-Elmer
B) Lockheed
C) Goddard Space Flight Center
D) Kodak
  • 26. What was the polishing accuracy required for Hubble's mirror?
A) 500 nanometers
B) 10 nanometers
C) 1 micrometer
D) 100 nanometers
  • 27. Which company constructed a backup mirror using traditional techniques?
A) Perkin-Elmer
B) Itek
C) Kodak
D) Lockheed
  • 28. What was the thickness of each plate in the Hubble mirror's sandwich structure?
A) 5 mm
B) 25 mm
C) 10 mm
D) 50 mm
  • 29. What was the original launch date planned for the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) March 1986
B) September 1986
C) April 1985
D) October 1984
  • 30. What was the thickness of the aluminum reflective coating on Hubble's mirror?
A) 50 nm
B) 65 nm
C) 25 nm
D) 100 nm
  • 31. Which material was used for the protective coating on Hubble's mirror?
A) Titanium nitride
B) Magnesium fluoride
C) Silicon dioxide
D) Aluminum oxide
  • 32. What was the total project budget for the Hubble Space Telescope by 1986?
A) $1.5 billion
B) $750 million
C) $900 million
D) $1.175 billion
  • 33. What was the final launch date for the Hubble Space Telescope after multiple postponements?
A) March 1986
B) October 1984
C) September 1986
D) April 1985
  • 34. What material is used in the HST's frame to keep its parts aligned?
A) Aluminum
B) Carbon fiber
C) Graphite-epoxy
D) Titanium alloy
  • 35. What method was used to reduce the risk of ice formation on HST's instruments?
A) The telescope was coated with an anti-ice material.
B) Heating elements were installed in the instruments.
C) Water-absorbing materials were used.
D) A nitrogen gas purge before launch
  • 36. What was added to the DF-224 during Servicing Mission 1 in 1993?
A) Additional memory modules.
B) Enhanced communication hardware.
C) An Intel-based 80386 processor with an 80387 math co-processor
D) A new cooling system.
  • 37. Which microprocessor did the MAT components use?
A) Hughes Aircraft CDP1802CD
B) Westinghouse NSSC-1.
C) Intel 80386 processor.
D) RCA 1802 microprocessor.
  • 38. Which institution built the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC)?
A) University of Wisconsin–Madison
B) NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
C) Goddard Space Flight Center
D) European Space Agency
  • 39. What was the primary function of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC)?
A) Infrared observations
B) Ultraviolet spectroscopy
C) Visible light photometry
D) High-resolution optical imaging
  • 40. How many CCD chips did the WF/PC contain?
A) Twelve
B) Sixteen
C) Four
D) Eight
  • 41. What type of detectors did the FOC, FOS, and GHRS use?
A) Photon-counting digicons
B) Photomultiplier tubes
C) Infrared sensors
D) Charge-coupled devices (CCDs)
  • 42. What was the resolution accuracy achieved by Hubble's Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) for astrometry?
A) Within 0.0003 arcseconds
B) Within 1 arcsecond
C) Within 0.01 arcseconds
D) Within 0.001 arcseconds
  • 43. Which instrument was primarily used for keeping the telescope accurately pointed during observations?
A) Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC)
B) Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS)
C) High Speed Photometer (HSP)
D) Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS)
  • 44. How many spectral lines could the WF/PC isolate using its set of filters?
A) 24
B) 48
C) 12
D) 96
  • 45. Which instrument was built by the University of Wisconsin–Madison?
A) Faint Object Camera (FOC)
B) Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS)
C) Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC)
D) High Speed Photometer (HSP)
  • 46. What is the approximate altitude of Hubble's orbit?
A) 700 kilometers (435 mi)
B) 1000 kilometers (621 mi)
C) 540 kilometers (340 mi)
D) 350 kilometers (217 mi)
  • 47. What is the solar avoidance angle for Hubble's observations?
A) About 50°
B) 90°
C) 30°
D) 70°
  • 48. What event caused the postponement of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch originally planned for October 1986?
A) Budget cuts in NASA funding
B) Delays in manufacturing parts
C) Technical issues with the telescope
D) The Challenger disaster
  • 49. Which Space Shuttle mission successfully launched the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990?
A) STS-26
B) STS-41-C
C) STS-31
D) STS-28
  • 50. Which instrument was kept in hibernation since 2008 but could be revived if WFC3 failed?
A) STIS
B) NICMOS
C) COSTAR
D) ACS
  • 51. Which instrument replaced the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in 2009?
A) Advanced Camera for Surveys
B) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
C) Fine Guidance Sensors
D) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
  • 52. Where is the Faint Object Camera (FOC) displayed?
A) Space Place at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
B) Dornier museum, Germany
C) NASA's Johnson Space Center
D) Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
  • 53. What was one of the improvements made to Hubble during its delay after the Challenger disaster?
A) Replacing all instruments
B) Eliminating the need for ground software
C) Reducing the telescope's size
D) Swapping out a possibly failure-prone battery
  • 54. Which instrument was operational from 1990 to 2002 and replaced by ACS in 2002?
A) Faint Object Camera (FOC)
B) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
C) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
D) Fine Guidance Sensor
  • 55. Which instrument was operational from 1990 to 1997 and is now displayed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum?
A) Fine Guidance Sensor
B) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
C) Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS)
D) Wide Field Camera 3
  • 56. What technique did astronomers use to partially compensate for Hubble's defective mirror?
A) The telescope was recalibrated using ground-based observations.
B) Sophisticated image processing techniques such as deconvolution.
C) Astronomers manually adjusted each image.
D) They used additional lenses to correct the images.
  • 57. Who headed the commission that investigated the error with the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror?
A) Carl Sagan
B) Edwin Hubble
C) Neil Armstrong
D) Lew Allen
  • 58. What was the main issue found by the Allen Commission regarding the Hubble's mirror?
A) The mirror was made of incorrect material.
B) The telescope's software was faulty.
C) The mirror was not polished enough.
D) A reflective null corrector had been incorrectly assembled.
  • 59. What was considered more accurate but led to the error in Hubble's mirror?
A) Computer simulations.
B) Manual measurements.
C) Conventional refractive null correctors.
D) The custom-built reflective null corrector.
  • 60. What was the intended conic constant for Hubble's mirror?
A) -1.00230
B) -1.01390±0.0002
C) -1.50000
D) -0.90000
  • 61. Which Space Shuttle flew the first servicing mission in December 1993?
A) Discovery
B) Columbia
C) Endeavour
D) Atlantis
  • 62. What was replaced with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) during Servicing Mission 1?
A) WF/PC
B) High Speed Photometer
C) Solar arrays
D) Gyroscopes
  • 63. How many mission simulations occurred before Servicing Mission 1?
A) Five
B) Seven
C) Ten
D) Three
  • 64. When did NASA declare the first servicing mission a complete success?
A) March 1, 1994
B) February 14, 1994
C) January 13, 1994
D) December 31, 1993
  • 65. Which astronaut was assigned to Servicing Mission 1 due to their experience in satellite repair procedures since 1976?
A) Buzz Aldrin
B) Neil Armstrong
C) Story Musgrave
D) Yuri Gagarin
  • 66. What was installed during Servicing Mission 3A to prevent battery overcharging?
A) New thermal insulation blankets.
B) Heat sink of solid nitrogen.
C) Solid State Recorder.
D) Voltage/temperature Improvement Kit (VIK).
  • 67. What problem did Servicing Mission 3B resolve for NICMOS?
A) Installed a closed-cycle cooler.
B) Installed new solar arrays.
C) Replaced its main mirror.
D) Upgraded its data-handling unit.
  • 68. What was the impact of the Columbia disaster on Hubble's servicing missions?
A) It led to immediate repairs being made to Hubble.
B) NASA decided to launch the James Webb Space Telescope earlier.
C) Future crewed service missions were canceled.
D) Servicing Mission 4 was postponed indefinitely.
  • 69. What technique does the Frontier Fields program use to study distant galaxies?
A) Radio wave detection
B) X-ray observation
C) Gravitational lensing
D) Ultraviolet imaging
  • 70. Which observatory is coordinated with Hubble for some research projects?
A) Kepler Space Telescope
B) Chandra X-ray Observatory
C) Spitzer Space Telescope
D) James Webb Space Telescope
  • 71. What does the Frontier Fields program aim to provide for galaxies at z > 5?
A) Ultraviolet imaging
B) Data on outer planets' atmospheres
C) Observations of young stars
D) The first statistically meaningful morphological characterization
  • 72. In what year was the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) launched?
A) 2020
B) 2010
C) 1998
D) 2006
  • 73. How many scientists are involved in the COSMOS collaboration?
A) Less than 50
B) About 500
C) Exactly 100
D) More than 200
  • 74. What percentage of the Universe's age do the galaxies in COSMOS span?
A) 90%
B) 75%
C) 50%
D) 100%
  • 75. How many countries are involved in the COSMOS collaboration?
A) Twenty
B) Two
C) Five
D) A dozen
  • 76. How many orbits were used to map the northern half of Andromeda in the PHAT program?
A) 195 orbits.
B) 500 orbits.
C) 828 orbits.
D) 1000 orbits.
  • 77. How many orbits were used to map the southern half of Andromeda in the PHAST program?
A) 1000 orbits.
B) 500 orbits.
C) 195 orbits.
D) 828 orbits.
  • 78. How often are calls for proposals issued for the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) Monthly
B) Biannually
C) Every two years
D) Roughly annually
  • 79. How many hours per cycle were allocated to amateur astronomers by Riccardo Giacconi?
A) No specific allocation
B) Half of the telescope's time
C) Only a few hours
D) The entire cycle
  • 80. What was one study conducted by amateur astronomers using the Hubble Telescope?
A) "Transition Comets – UV Search for OH"
B) Study of black holes
C) Analysis of Earth's climate
D) Observation of exoplanets
  • 81. In which decade did NASA and STScI convene panels to discuss key projects for the Hubble Space Telescope?
A) The late 1970s
B) The early 1980s
C) The mid-1990s
D) The early 2000s
  • 82. What term describes the unknown cause of the universe's accelerated expansion?
A) Cosmic radiation
B) Quantum flux
C) Dark energy
D) Dunkle Materie
  • 83. What significant discovery was made with Hubble's help in 2016?
A) A new type of black hole
B) A new solar system within our galaxy
C) An Earth-like planet in the habitable zone
D) The farthest confirmed galaxy, GN-z11
  • 84. Which moon of Jupiter was found to have a subsurface ocean by Hubble in 2015?
A) Io
B) Callisto
C) Ganymede
D) Europa
  • 85. What was the name of the dwarf planet discovered by Hubble in 2015 as a target for New Horizons' extended mission?
A) Eris
B) 486958 Arrokoth
C) Pluto
D) Sedna
  • 86. In what year did astronomers use Hubble to determine the size of comet C/2014 UN271's nucleus?
A) 2022
B) 2019
C) 2015
D) 2018
  • 87. What is the estimated mass of comet C/2014 UN271's nucleus compared to other known comets?
A) Twice the mass
B) Ten times the mass
C) Fifty times the mass
D) The same as other known comets
  • 88. What significant discovery was made using Hubble data in the Orion Nebula?
A) Proto-planetary disks (proplyds)
B) Dark matter
C) Black holes
D) Quasars
  • 89. Which galaxy observed by Hubble using gravitational lensing subverted expectations about star formation?
A) MACS 2129-1
B) Sombrero Galaxy
C) Andromeda Galaxy
D) Whirlpool Galaxy
  • 90. What is the nickname of the farthest individual star detected by Hubble in 2022?
A) Betelgeuse
B) Sirius
C) Rigel
D) Earendel
  • 91. How many papers based on Hubble data had been published in peer-reviewed journals by 2025?
A) About 10,000
B) Nearly 30,000
C) Over 22,000
D) Approximately 15,000
  • 92. What technique had obtained higher-resolution optical and infrared images than Hubble before its launch?
A) Aperture masking interferometry
B) Radio astronomy
C) X-ray imaging
D) Spectroscopy
  • 93. What was one of the unexpected findings regarding optical surfaces in LEO from Hubble's mission?
A) They degrade rapidly due to radiation.
B) They require frequent replacement.
C) They can have surprisingly long lifetimes.
D) They are unaffected by vacuum conditions.
  • 94. What type of storage facilities were initially used on the Hubble Space Telescope when it was launched?
A) Optical discs
B) Solid state data storage
C) Reel-to-reel tape drives
D) Flash memory
  • 95. What is the proprietary period for Hubble data before it becomes publicly available?
A) Twenty-four months
B) Six months
C) Immediately upon collection
D) Twelve months
  • 96. Which format is used to store all data in the Hubble archive for astronomical analysis?
A) FITS format
B) JPEG format
C) PNG format
D) TIFF format
  • 97. What color is typically rendered for infrared channels in false-color images from Hubble?
A) Dark blue
B) Deep red
C) Vivid yellow
D) Bright green
  • 98. Who can apply to extend or reduce the proprietary period of Hubble data?
A) The director of STScI
B) NASA administrators
C) The principal investigator (PI)
D) Any astronomer
  • 99. What is the term for the automatic calibration process used on Hubble data?
A) Pipeline reduction
B) Data compression
C) Manual calibration
D) Image enhancement
  • 100. What is used to create color images from Hubble's monochromatic data?
A) Post-processing with artificial intelligence
B) Combining separate monochrome images through different filters
C) Direct color imaging sensors
D) Using a single wide-spectrum filter
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