What specific optical flaw caused the initial fuzzy and blurred images from the Hubble telescope?
Answer
Spherical aberration
The core problem encountered immediately after the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment was spherical aberration. This is an optical defect where light rays striking different radial locations on a curved mirror do not converge at a single, precise focal point. Specifically in Hubble's case, light hitting the edges of the primary mirror focused slightly in front of where the light hitting the center focused. This divergence meant that parallel light rays failed to meet at the required single point, resulting in the crisp, perfect images astronomers had anticipated appearing instead as smeared, fuzzy data instead of sharp points of light.
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What specific optical flaw caused the initial fuzzy and blurred images from the Hubble telescope?How much flatter were the edges of the primary mirror polished compared to the required contour?What instrument, intended to verify the mirror's shape, was installed incorrectly during ground testing?Which companies were responsible for grinding and testing the flawed primary mirror, respectively?What resolution, instead of the intended 0.1 arcseconds, did the flawed Hubble deliver?What corrective package was implemented to fix the focus issue for instruments like the FOS and GHRS?Which servicing mission, launching in December 1993, successfully deployed the corrective optics?What instrument was physically replaced by the WFPC2 during the first servicing mission?The intended precision for the primary mirror shape was accurate to within what fraction of a human hair's width?What key lesson regarding verification systems did the Hubble flaw highlight?