Astronomers to campaign for Hubble Space Telescope

An international group of astronomers is lobbying for a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that would allow developing nations greater access to space research.

US space agency NASA plans to replace Hubble in the year 2011.

NASA's decision to put the Hubble Space Telescope into early retirement has angered the many scientists who will lose access to what some describe as the greatest astronomy instrument since Galileo invented the telescope.

A team of Hubble supporters is calling for political and financial backing for a telescope that would go some way to filling the gap between developing and developed nations.

The World Space Observatory concept has the support of more than 20 countries - including nations like South Africa, Argentina and Mexico - that do not have large space programs of their own.

Astronomers say it would be the first truly global space mission and would cost about $400 million dollars, about one-tenth that of Hubble, inform abc.net.au

According to BBC the loss of the Hubble Space Telescope will rob astronomers of a view of the Cosmos in ultraviolet, creating a gap in our understanding of the Universe. That is the claim of a University of Leicester astronomer who is calling for a replacement called the World Space Observatory to be built.

Nasa says visits to the telescope are to stop due to safety concerns.

Because it is in space, Hubble is the only telescope able to observe in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum.