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About Us |
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Press Room MEDIA CONTACT: David Perry, (415) 864-6397 "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe" On View Now through August 12, 2001 Oakland, CA, May 25, 2001 — Chabot Space & Science Center in the Oakland hills hosts a new exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution that focuses on the wonders revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. In this spectacular display, visitors have an opportunity to explore the Hubble Telescope's workings and extraordinary discoveries up close. The exhibit's activities, artifacts, videos and vivid images describe the telescope's history, design, and purpose, allowing viewers to gain a greater understanding of celestial phenomena and intergalactic space. "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe" remains on view this summer through August 12. Visitors to Chabot Space & Science Center enter the exhibit through a tunnel filled with the sounds and views of space. The exhibit includes a scale model of the telescope as it appears in its orbit around the Earth. Other sections of the exhibit describe the history and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope, and its contributions to our understanding of the origins and evolution of planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe. Launched on April 24, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery (STS-131), the Hubble Space Telescope whirls 370 miles above Earth at a speed of 5 miles per second, completing its orbit every 97 minutes. Hubble gathers images with its primary mirror that measures nearly 8 feet across, and each day transmits enough data to fill 10,000 standard computer diskettes. About the size of a large school bus (43.5 feet in length), and weighing 24,500 pounds, Hubble is powered by energy from the Sun captured by its two 40-foot solar panels. "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe" has been organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Space Telescope Science Institute, operated for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. The exhibition and its educational programs have been made possible through the generous support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Offices of Space Science and Education and Lockheed Martin. Chabot Space & Science Center galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm. General admission to the Science Center is $8 for adults and $5.50 for seniors and children. (There is an additional fee for admission to the Ask Jeeves Planetarium and Tien MegaDome Theater.) Chabot Space & Science Center is located at 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland (in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills). Convenient visitor-paid parking is available on site, and AC Transit bus line 53 provides direct service from the Fruitvale BART station and points between. Photographs of the "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe" installation at Chabot Space & Science Center:
Photos by Steven dos Remedios -END- | |||||||||||
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