Hubble Space Telescope Replica

A scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope honors Marshfield native Edwin Hubble. Hubble became one of the most famous astronomers of the 20th century, contributing to our understanding of the expansion of the universe and leading to our knowledge of the Big Bang. NASA honored his accomplishments by naming the Hubble Deep Space telescope after this Missouri native.

Hubble was born on November 20, 1889. In the 1920s, while working at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Hubble discovered the existence of countless galaxies beyond our own Milky Way. In studying the behavior of those galaxies, Hubble began classifying them into distinct types, and gathered evidence that proved the universe was expanding in distinct and measurable ways.

The Hubble Space Telescope launched on April 24, 1990. The space-based observatory has helped scientists observe distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets within our own solar system. Over more than 30 years of operation, Hubble has made more than 1.5 million observations.

The one-quarter size, 1,200-pound replica of the Hubble Space Telescope stands in a square in the center of town. The model was created by William Buesgen and was presented by the Webster County Historical Society on June 12, 1999.