Hubble

Popular Science, 1998
A New Prescription for Hubble
by Arthur Fisher

Hubble is about to undergo another service visit, one intended to enhance the $3 billion telescope's already stellar performance by a factor of 100. ... Why mess with success? ... The new instruments are the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). ... Because infrared light is not filtered by the dust that blocks visible light, NICMOS will be able to peer farther back in time-that is, to a greater distance-than the optical and ultraviolet light instruments now functioning on Hubble. Scientists hope the new instrument will help solve some of the conundrums of modern cosmology, such as the origin of galaxies. NICMOS was developed by the University of Arizona with Ball Aerospace and the Rockwell Electro-Optical Center in Anaheim, California.