What primary advantage did the Hubble Space Telescope's 1990 deployment provide over previous ground-based telescopes?

Answer

Its orbital position eliminated approximately 95% of the distorting effects caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

The defining technical advantage of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) stemmed from its placement above the distorting effects of the Earth's atmosphere. Terrestrial telescopes suffer from atmospheric turbulence, which blurs and scatters light, limiting clarity and sensitivity, especially for faint, ancient light sources. By operating in orbit, the HST was able to capture images with unprecedented clarity and sensitivity across visible, ultraviolet, and near-infrared light, gathering the faint signals that Edwin Hubble had labored intensely to observe through ground-based instruments, but now with vastly superior resolution.

What primary advantage did the Hubble Space Telescope's 1990 deployment provide over previous ground-based telescopes?

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