has the hubble space telescope changed the way we look at the universe?

Question

is outer space what we think it is? what are the odds of other life in space? And if so are they nice or hostile.

Answer 1

I'd go on and babble forever about hubble and life out there as well, but I found this spiffy little video that will do it for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw
the picture in the beggining is the Flammarion woodcut.

Flammarion's caption translates to "A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet..." (on a flat earth)

Answer 2

Yes, it has changed the way we look at the universe, very literally!

If you'd like to see the best images we could get of things before we had the hubble telescope, find an old issue of Astronomy, or Sky & Telescope magazine, or an old copy of the Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky.

Or, better yet....
Here is the type of photo you would expect to get from a large ground based telescope in the pre-hubble days.
http://www.delbarton.org/OnCampus/Student_Life/Activities/Astronomy/astronomyimages/M104A.JPG

And here is the photo the hubble got of the same galaxy:
http://terpsichore.stsci.edu/~summers/viz/hgast/hgast_imax_sombrero_galaxy_0510_1404x1024.jpg

Today, with new technologies such as adaptive optics and and computer editing programs, we can now get photos from ground based telescopes that rival the optical photos from hubble. But the Hubble has other types of telescopes piggybacked on it, and so can see more than visible light, and we get most of our information about objects out in space from the non-visible light they emit.

I don't know about the odds of life in space but I think the odds of life on other planets is higher than not. Some probably nice, some probably hostile?

Here's a question. Are we nice or hostile?

Answer 3

There is no doubt that the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed details of the cosmos that we could only dream about before. Despite it's initial problems it has sent back some stunning pictures. There is no evidence of life anywhere in outer space off of the Earth and it is likely to stay that way. Interstellar space travel is not possible it is against all the laws of physics so it is unlikely that contact will ever be made with any intelligent civilization from out in space. The odds of other life is very high but we will never find out about any of it. Dreams of exploring the Galaxy like Star Trek are just that, dreams. We can go there is our imaginations but we have to realize our limitations.
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Answer 4

here's one"

is there a man living on the corner of 32nd and chestnut in NYC? Is he nice or mean?

see the pointlessness of this kind of question?

yes it has changed the way, the probability of life is approximately 1.