How much information does
the Hubble Space Telescope collect?
Each day, the telescope transmits enough data to fill 2,000 computer floppy disks - equivalent to an encyclopedia. This rapidly growing collection of pictures and data is stored on 12-inch optical disks. To make the information available to the astronomical community and others, the Institute created a CD-Rom catalog called "Starview," which lists the location of data on the optical disks. Because the catalog also is available on the World Wide Web, scientists and other interested persons with Internet access may order and receive the information online.
| Optical disks such as this one hold 1.5 megabytes of data. Since the start of the mission in 1990, the Institute has amassed 2.5 terabytes of data (1 terabyte = 1 million megabytes), making the Institute's archives among the largest astronomical databases in the world. |
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