It has revolutionised modern astronomy, making new discoveries and driving astronomical research. Yes - you guessed it…where would we be without the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)? The telescope is a long-term, space-based observatory created through a joint venture between NASA and ESA.

We all know this is no ordinary telescope. But what exactly gives it the ‘oomph’ that makes it a superlative telescope? Let’s try and find out…

The Universe is transparent to visible light over journeys lasting thousands of millions of years. The problem lies in the last few microseconds before that light arrives at telescope mirrors on Earth, it must travel through turbulent atmosphere and the cosmic details gets blurred.

The solution? Putting a telescope in space that collects visible lights as well as infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. The last two are usually completely filtered out by the atmosphere.

From it’s vantage point 600km above the Earth it can detect light with ‘eyes’ five times sharper than the best telescopes we have grounded on Earth.

• Visit the official Hubble site for info on recent discoveries, images and videos, and an in-depth look at the workings and maintenance.
• How to make your own hand-held Hubble
• The Celestial Tango: Two vast galaxies performing an intricate dance almost 300 million light years from the Earth.
• A brief history
• Beautiful Hubble images
• Watch live webcam feeds