Part II-Last Hubble Mission Approaching
With Hubble’s Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) actually its fifth visit to the orbiting telescope, the WFC3 will study the “early and distant galaxies” in addition to the galaxies in our own neighborhood, with the prior currently beyond Hubble’s reach. Meanwhile, the COS will study the large-scale structure of the universe, obtaining a better understanding of the formation and the evolution of the galaxies, stars and planets. Its primary scientific objective is to measure ordinary matter—its structure and composition—that is concentrated in the “cosmic web”.
A study of galactic evolution is needed to understand our destiny in addition to our birth and evolution, including star formation, unlocking secrets we know nothing about of our own solar system, and obtaining a better understanding of the mysterious dark energy. To obtain this, new imaging instruments are continuously being built on its predecessors, more superior in resolution and field-of-view. The new WFPC3 will be able to provide 35 times of an improvement in discovery efficiency in near ultraviolet and blue light over ACS, or the product of the field of view multiplied by the optical throughput, according to NASA. Meanwhile, its near-infrared detector will provide 15 to 20 times the improvement in discovery efficiency over NICMOS. Already at NASA’s Goddard, the WFC3 has completed its third and final follow-up thermal vacuum test, beating all specifications in all cases with no liens against it.
The COS has two channels to better understand the cosmic web—considered to be long, narrow filaments of galaxies and intergalactic gas separated by huge voids. These channels are the far ultraviolet (FUV) and the near ultraviolet (NUV), with its key feature being its maximized efficiency. With the other spectrograph, STIS, installed in 1997 in Service mission 2 and pretty much complementing the new one will have more than 30 times the sensitivity for FUV observations of faint objects –distant quasars, enabling key scientific programs, and providing a full set of spectroscopic tools for astrophysical research. Primarily a Ball Aerospace instrument has also completed all its testing and is ready for its 11-day eighteen hour mission.
This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
