Astronomy from Space

BBC Stargazing Live Event, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge (09/01/2013)

While it is vital for life, the Earth's atmosphere often hinders the efforts of astronomers! In this talk, I explore what has been achieved by space telescopes, most notably the Hubble Space Telescope, operating high above the distorting effects of the atmosphere. While it just distorts images we see in visible light, the Earth's atmosphere totally blocks light from space at other wavelengths, so what can we see if we go into space?