Since Galileo Galilei spotted craters on the Moon in the 15th century, telescopes have helped astronomers study planets, stars and galaxies. As technology has evolved, telescopes have helped us see farther and in more detail than ever before.

With the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, and a JPL-built camera added to Hubble three years later, a whole new perspective for astronomy was achieved. Unhampered by our planet's atmosphere and aided by powerful cameras, the Earth-orbiting telescope has taken images that look back almost as far as the Big Bang.

Astronomers have also employed the principle that two telescopes are better than one. In 1997, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey began using two telescopes -- one in Arizona, one in Chile -- to map the entire sky in near-infrared light, which allows scientists to see objects not visible to the naked eye. More recently, astronomers have combined the strength of two telescopes into one to create the world's most powerful optical telescope system. The Keck Interferometer in Hawaii will look for planets beyond our solar system.

These observatories are part of a larger quest NASA is undertaking to study the evolution of the universe and look for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system. This program, called Origins, seeks the answers to the questions:
Where did we come from? Are we alone?

Future NASA missions, such as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility and Terrestrial Planet Finder, will attempt to answer these questions and continue to break the bounds of how we look at the stars and study the universe.

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