THE BERT AND PEGGY DUPONT LECTURE: SCIENCE AND CULTURE FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in Earth orbit for almost 30 years, returning an amazing variety of scientific discoveries. It can be pointed via ground command to the entire panoply of astronomical objects, from nearby targets in our solar system to the most distant objects in the known universe. While these wonderful scientific results were expected by the project's founders, what have been more surprising are the cultural aspects of the program. Hubble has been embraced by the general public to an extent unprecedented for complex scientific facilities. Not only are its images widely known for their beauty, but the project itself has repeatedly entered the popular lexicon as an example of a technological pinnacle. We present examples of the numerous scientific successes, as well as popular culture memes related to Hubble. Finally, it is also important to ponder the broader question of why we conduct astronomical research.