DAVENPORT, Iowa — A piece of outer space history is coming to Davenport! The Putnam Museum and Science Center is hosting NASA's traveling exhibit, Hubble Telescope: New Views of the Universe, from Saturday, Nov. 9 to Jan. 26.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery back in 1990. It orbits 332 miles above the Earth and travels about five miles per second. That's the same as traveling from the East Coast of the U.S. to the West Coast in 10 minutes. The telescope is the length of a large school bus and weighs as much as two adult elephants.
Hubble is still in service today. Although in 2021, it was joined by the James Webb Space Telescope — the largest telescope in space. Hubble has made more than one million observations over the years, and its findings have forever changed our knowledge of space and science.
Hubble has captured images of star births and deaths, comets crashing into Jupiter's atmosphere and galaxies billions of light years away.
It is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. Five missions have been completed to repair, upgrade and replace systems on the telescope, including all five of its main instruments. The final servicing mission was finished in 2009. Hubble completed 30 years of operation in 2020 and is predicted to last until 2030 to 2040.
Right away, guests at the Putnam will walk through a dome of screens displaying images from both telescopes. The middle of the exhibit features a scale model of the Hubble, displaying information on its size, operation and what makes it different from observatories on land.
This immersive exhibit is constantly being updated with the newest photos and technology coming from the Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes. There will be images of stars, galaxies and planets, many of which we didn't know much about before the Hubble's work began.
The exhibit also features hands-on interactives. Visitors can check out the telescope's components and inter-workings, along with information about the thermal protection, solar power and light wavelengths that keep Hubble running. Attendees can also discover the telescope's various tools and all of the hurdles astronauts had to overcome during Hubble's construction and servicing.
And keeping with the space theme, the Putnam Museum will also show Space: A New Frontier, narrated by Chris Pine, in the museum's giant theatre.
“We’re so excited to bring this exhibit from NASA into our community. We hope to inspire the next generation towards STEM careers while providing a fun, immersive experience for the entire family," Vice President of Museum Experiences Kelly Lao said in a press release.
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