How does the Space Telescope work?
In essence, Hubble's science instruments are the astronomers' electronic eyes. Once the telescope observes a celestial object, its onboard computers convert the image or data into long strings of numbers beamed down to Earth via communications satellites.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center then forwards the data over land links to the Institute where it is then reconverted into data and images, analyzed, and stored. Observers may then study the data at the Institute or their home institutions using Institute-created software.
|  Images and data collected by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope travel 90,000 miles over satellite and ground links before they finally reach the Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. |