In most circumstances, retiring at 25 would be quite early. For the Hubble Space Telescope, 25 is just in time to be replaced with new technology and usher in the beginning of a new era in space optics.
The Marston Exploration Theater is commemorating both the telescope's birthday and its forthcoming retirement with the show Gathering Light, a bittersweet ode to both the Hubble's historic past and its legacy after the release of the next iteration of space optics: the James Webb Space Telescope.
"The James Webb telescope is kind of Hubble's replacement," said Tyler Cox, one of the two student workers running the show. Cox illuminated a sleek, gold plated satellite that flickered onscreen with a laser pointer.
Cox narrated the show, taking the audience on a journey starting with a close up of the legendary Hubble telescope itself, all the way to the furthest reaches that its fabled mirrors and lenses have glimpsed over its career.
In the middle of the show, Cox brought up a picture of the famed Eagle Nebula.
"This thing is about 11 lightyears tall," he said. "This is where star formation happens."
Notably, this photo, rated among the top 10 by Hubble, was taken by ASU professor Paul Scowen 21 years ago. For its 20th anniversary last year, he took the photo again with upgraded lenses on the Hubble telescope.
"You get the sense that this thing is enormous," Scowen said.
But while Hubble has taken photos and captured data beyond imagination, its time is quickly drawing to a close — the James Webb telescope will take its place in 2018.
That said, the Hubble's importance in catapulting astronomy to the popular realm and drawing many budding astronomers to the field cannot be understated.
Source: Hubblesite.org
"I was actually kind of a late bloomer," said Cameron White, one of the student workers at the show. "I was a senior in high school before I figured out that astronomy was a possibility, and then I started to find a much deeper interest in it."
New astronomy students have already made an impact at the University.
"We just started up with them in the last year," Cox said. "A guy who just left ... created the show with the help of some other students who've all graduated."
While they did not design the "Gathering Light" show, Cox and White's passion for astronomy has led them to become an integral part of the Marston Theater's latest programming.
"We took part in creating the most recent show, which was 'The Secret Life of Stars'," White said.
That show explores the birth, life and death of stars, and has been playing at the Marston since the beginning of this year.
Indeed, torch passing was a major theme in the show.
A photo of the Hubble telescope faded out onscreen as one of the James Webb replaced it. And now, Cox and White fill the shoes of their astronomical predecessors.
Cox and White have shows at the Marston theater twice a week with tickets costing $5, and an open house on Sept. 23, which is free to the public.
Reach the reporter at sdeadric@asu.edu or follow @deadrick_sam on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
