The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS or HRS) was an ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ver ...

during its original construction, and it was launched into space as part of that space telescope aboard the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

'' Discovery'' on April 24, 1990 ( STS-31). The instrument is named after 20th century rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard. One of the results was the discovery of tenuous atmosphere for Jupiter's moon Europa in 1995. The gas was determined to be mostly of molecular oxygen (O₂). The surface pressure of Europa's atmosphere is 0.1 μPa, or 10⁻¹² times that of the Earth. An example GHRS use was to observe the local interstellar medium in the direction towards Capella. The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph was removed from the Hubble Space Telescope during the February, 1997, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' mission STS-82 (also called SM-2 for Servicing Mission 2). It, and the Faint Object Spectrograph, were replaced by two new instruments installed during the mission, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph HRS facts

*Instrument type:

Ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiati ...

spectrograph *

Wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...

range: 1150 to 3200 Å (105 to 320 nm) * Resolving Power ** Low - 2,000 ** Medium - 25,000 ** High - 80,000 A technical description of the construction and operation of the GHRS can be found in the GHRS instrument handbook.

References

External links

The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
Hubble Space Telescope instruments Spectrographs Space hardware returned to Earth intact {{US-spacecraft-stub