Here's a quick overview of our top stories for Friday, April 24, 2026:
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TOP HEADLINES:
Montana Supreme Court hears Butte bondsman appeal at MSU Law Day
REC Silicon land purchase halts Sabey Data Center plans in Butte
Belgrade businesses worry proposed roundabout will remove parking
All Montana inmates housed out of state are now located in Mississippi
Bozeman High, Gallatin overlook crosstown rivalry to forge co-op softball team
THAT’S INTERESTING:
Here's a list of historical facts about the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990:
Launch & Naming
- Named after Edwin Hubble - The legendary astronomer who discovered that the universe is expanding and that many "nebulae" were actually distant galaxies beyond the Milky Way
- Launched on April 24, 1990 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery
- Size comparison - About the size of a large school bus
Early Challenges & Triumph
- Major optical flaw discovered - Within weeks of launch, astronomers discovered the primary mirror was ground to the wrong specifications, causing blurry images
- Historic repair mission - The 1993 Space Shuttle servicing mission was so audacious and successful that it captured the public's imagination more than any other space mission, including Apollo
Record-Breaking Performance
- Over 1.7 million observations were made during its lifetime
- 22,000+ peer-reviewed scientific papers published using Hubble data
- Travels at 17,500 mph and has covered a distance equivalent to a trip to Neptune
- 150 gigabits of data are transmitted to Earth every week
- 27,000+ astronomers have used Hubble data for research
Groundbreaking Discoveries
- Determined the age of the universe - Helped pin down the universe's age at approximately 13.8 billion years
- Discovered dark energy - Found that the universe's expansion is actually accelerating, not slowing down
- Black hole evidence - Provided conclusive proof that supermassive black holes exist at the centers of galaxies
- Comet collision - Watched Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collide with Jupiter in 1994
- Pluto's moons - Discovered Hydra and Nix, small moons orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto
Deep Space Achievements
- Hubble Deep Field - Captured images of about 1,500 galaxies, revealing galactic evolution
- Time machine effect - Acts as a time machine, showing us galaxies as they appeared billions of years ago
- First predicted supernova - Caught the first predicted appearance of a supernova in a distant galaxy cluster
- Planetary nebulae - Revealed the astounding variety and complexity of dying stars' beautiful death throes
Technical Marvels
- Designed for space servicing - First major telescope designed to be repaired and upgraded in orbit
- Five major servicing missions - Astronauts have visited Hubble multiple times to replace instruments and components
- 2.4-meter mirror - Though relatively modest by today's ground telescope standards, its space location gives it unprecedented clarity
Parts of this story were adapted for this platform with AI assistance. Our editorial team verifies all reporting across all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
