Before we can really understand why the Hubble Space Telescope would ever need (or want) to work with other telescopes, we have to understand how light works. Go to Amazing Space and do this activity:
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/light/CatchWaves_activation-frames.html
The Star Spectrum
Now that you've finished that, along the bottom of this image are pictures of the same galaxy taken by different telescopes that take pictures of different wavelengths of light.
ttp://www.sciencenews.org/view/download/id/47748/name/WIDE-SPECTRUM_PORTRAIT
Talk about the different pictures. Are they all the same? Why do you think they are different?
Each picture was taken of a different part of the light spectrum coming from the stars. Each one gives scientists different kinds of information.
The Hubble Space Telescope: How doe it work?
Now, to look specifically at the Hubble Space Telescope: It doesn't work like a regular camera just taking a snapshot of the sky. That doesn't give scientists enough information. Instead, it takes multiple pictures and scientists combine them to get the most information out of them they can. Choose one of the following sites to learn more about this (you can look at both, but they cross over):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0303/01-howi-flash.html --shows the whole process, written by a scientist who has created Hubble images.
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/behind_the_pictures/ --shows how the images are made focusing on just the shape and then on just the colors.
Different pictures--different information--same stars
Now that you know how the images are made, here is a site that compares the Hubble image of a galaxy to the image taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Watch the movie--notice how it "morphs" the Hubble image to the Spizter image? They are clearly the same place, but the pictures (and the information scientists can get out of them) are different.
http://spitzer.caltech.edu/video-audio/51-ssc2005-11v1-A-More-Spectacular-Sombrero
What is different between the Hubble and Spitzer images of the same thing? Why are they different?
Maximizing the Possibilities
To get the most information possible, the scientists sometimes combine the images from different telescopes:
Hubble + Spitzer=
and
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090107.html
Hubble+Herschel= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8127798.stm
Hubble + Chandra= http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/14.jpg
Hubble + Spizter+ Chandra= http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49423/title/The_Milky_Way,_aglow_with_activity_
And now we'll go back to one of the pictures we looked at before.
The top pictures there is actually a combination of all the little pictures. It is Chandra+ Galen+ 2Mass+ Spitzer+ IRAS+ VLA! (you can read the article this came from and learn more about all of these here: http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/47686/title/Windows_on_the_Universe)
Engagement Activity
Now, finally, it turns out that YOU can make space images like Hubble's at home! Click this link to learn how.
http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/services/articles/2005-02-10/
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