sts on Reading Since 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been working day and night to the secrets of the universe. Before they had Hubble, scientists couldn't questions as how old the universe is, and how fast it is expanding. Thanks to Hubble, they can now answer both of these questions and many more 2 The Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space in 199o. But the first pictures it sent back to Earth weren't as clear as they should have been. There was something wrong with the telescope. In 1993 a team of astronauts was sent to fix the telescope, and scientists started getting the spectacular pictures they had been waiting for. Telescopes here on Earth can't get very clear pictures of objects in space because the Earth's atmosphere makes the pictures unclear. A telescope in space doesn't have that problem. The Hubble Space Telescope can take pictures that are ten times clearer than any taken on Earth. 3 Hubble gave us the first clear pictures of the dwarf planet Pluto, and spectacular views of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter in 1994. It has shown us new stars being born and old ones dying. It has helped us discover new planets. Hubble, and other telescopes like it, could one day help us answer the biggest question of all-are we alone in the universe?