Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph

File:STS31 carries Hubble to orbit edit.jpg

Space Shuttle Discovery heads into orbit during its 1990 STS-31 mission with the Hubble Space Telescope and its original instrument suite, including the High Resolution Spectrograph.

File:Out with the Old- Replacing the High Resolution Spectrograph (1997) (3824) (crop).jpg

GHRS being removed during Servicing Mission 2. (1997)

The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS or HRS) was an ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during its original construction, and it was launched into space as part of that space telescope aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990 (STS-31).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The instrument is named after 20th century rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

One of the results was the discovery of tenuous atmosphere for Jupiter's moon Europa in 1995.<ref name="Hall1995"/> The gas was determined to be mostly of molecular oxygen (O₂).<ref name="Hall1995">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="EuropaOxygenJPL">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The surface pressure of Europa's atmosphere is 0.1 μPa, or 10⁻¹² times that of the Earth.<ref name="McGrathChapter">Template:Cite book</ref>

An example GHRS use was to observe the local interstellar medium in the direction towards Capella.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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,<ref name="Hubble instruments"/> were replaced by two new instruments installed during the mission,<ref name=nasaspaceflight1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Hubble instruments">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Instrument details

• Instrument type: Ultraviolet spectrograph
• Wavelength 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. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>

External links

• The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
• ESA/Hubble

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