Credit:
STS-82 Crew,
NASA
Explanation:
The Hubble Space Telescope's
second servicing mission has been completed. Every few years,
the telescope is visited by a Space Shuttle
to allow astronauts
to switch old instruments for new. This time, the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
and Faint Object
Spectrograph
were replaced by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer
and the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.
These new instruments will act like eyes sharing the 2.4-meter
telescope mirror with the remaining instruments: the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
and the Faint Object
Camera.
The Hubble Space Telescope
can take clearer pictures
than ground based telescopes because its images are not blurred
by the Earth's atmosphere.
Pictured in the final phases of a space walk from the second
servicing mission, astronauts
Mark Lee (right) and
Steven Smith work on
HST
while perched on the Shuttle's remote manipulator arm.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Hubble space telescope
Publications with words: Hubble space telescope
See also: